


A Need To Know Basis

by Weevilo707



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Road Trip, Fluff and Humor, Hijinks & Shenanigans, M/M, Road Trips, Secret Relationship, Taakitz Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2020-11-25 19:00:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 32,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20916992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Weevilo707/pseuds/Weevilo707
Summary: Things had been going pretty damn good for Taako in the romance department lately. He had a new very sweet and very hot boyfriend that actually made him want to like, put an effort in and junk. Kravitz was kind of amazing, and Taako wasn't sure how he got so lucky. There was only one problem.As far as he could tell, his family fucking hated Kravitz. So as far as his family knew, Taako was currently single and definitely not seeing anyone.Not an ideal solution, but one that worked well enough for now. Or at least, it was before Lup and the rest of their ragtag group of misfits decided to go on a long road trip for the summer. Hiding a boyfriend was considerably harder when trapped in an RV with seven other people for two and a half weeks.It was even harder when trying to bring said boyfriend along for the ride.





	1. Chapter 1

It was summer and Taako had everything planned out for the whole thing to go perfectly. Of course, the plan was pretty simple. Over-complicated plans were bound to fail after all, so he was keeping his shit clean cut.

He was going to spend the precious three months out of college sleeping in as late as possible, chilling with his friends and sister, and spending as much time as possible making out with his hot as fuck, ridiculously sweet boyfriend. Bing bang boom, simple as anything. A guaranteed recipe for a good time as far as Taako was concerned, and his concern was the only one that mattered.

There was only one real hitch in his plan so far, and that was the fact that other than himself and Kravitz, who happened to be said sweet, hot boyfriend, no one knew he was actually, ya know, dating anyone. He also had no plans on letting anyone else in on that fact anytime soon.

It was definitely weird, keeping something like this from everyone, especially from  _ Lup _ of all people. Under any other circumstance that would raise about a million red flags for Taako, no matter how smitten he might be.

The thing was, it wasn’t like it was Kravitz’s idea to keep shit a secret. It hadn’t even been his idea to date. Taako had been the driving force behind both of those decisions.

They’d been dating for kinda a while now, a surprisingly long time without anyone else finding out if he was being honest. Of course, they had the help of finals and everything keeping everyone distracted for a good chunk of time there. That had also done the unfortunate job of keeping the two of them pretty busy as well, so they could only meet up here and there every so often. Not anywhere near often enough for Taako's liking.

Taako had met Kravitz about a year ago, in a complete fucking shit show. He couldn’t remember a lot of the details, it might have been Candlenights and he might have drank a few too many eggnog. He spent most of the time hiding out eating a sandwich. The facts he did know was that there had been a pretty nasty fight, someone might have gotten shoved and that someone had definitely been Merle down some stairs, breaking the dude’s arm.

Ever since then, Magnus had had a grudge against Kravitz (Merle less so, but Merle might not even remember the specifics of what happened that night either), and all Taako could really remember of the dude was that he was hot and his friends weren’t fans, so he hadn’t thought much of it after that. The next time he’d heard about the dude was from  _ Barry _ of all people, and well, it was not exactly glowing reviews there either. You had to be pretty fucking bad to piss off Barry too, and Taako had officially put Kravitz on his ‘assholes, do not interact’ list.

And that had been it for a while. He’d see the dude around campus, but for the most part avoided him. Sometimes he’d hear Barry complaining about him on topics Taako nodded along with but did not even begin to comprehend. It was pretty set, Kravitz was a dick, a real fucking pretty one, but he wasn’t gonna broach that with anyone, especially not with his friends, who seemed to hate the guy’s guts.

And then Taako got stuck in a ceramics class.

There weren’t a lot of classes available to him for the semester, at least not ones that he needed. And of course, he couldn’t take the other classes he needed without their pre-recs. So he was left with a good couple of credits he needed to fill to keep a full time student status for his financial aid and shit. So, he took ceramics. It seemed like it would be fun, he got to use his hands kinda like he was cooking with really thick, really cold dough, and because of the length of the class it was a lot of credits. It seemed like a pretty good deal.

The only issue was that Kravitz was also in that class. Taako had no idea why, but he figured he could just try and go the whole class without talking to him or something. Taako was good at avoiding people, he’d avoided people for a lot longer than a semester, it should have been no problem.

The first three weeks he managed to avoid talking to the guy pretty well. They sat at different tables as they worked, and Kravitz seemed as on board with ignoring his existences as Taako was to ignore him. Shit was fine.

Then the teacher started them on throwing, and assigned them seats at the wheels.

Of course, Taako found himself sat right fucking next to Kravitz.

He managed two more classes before they actually started talking. Taako figured he could have gone longer, but everything he’d built up about the guy being some huge pretentious dick began to fall away as he watched him up close.

The dude could not figure out throwing to save his life, the balls of clay falling apart between his fingers in wet, sloppy messes.

Taako watched his struggle in amusement for two days before finally starting to feel bad. He on the other hand was picking it up pretty well. He’d even caught Kravitz glancing over at his work every now and then, looking like he was trying to mimic his movements and failing spectacularly.

It was as cute as it was hilarious, and Taako really did try and pretend it wasn’t either of those things for a while.

Eventually Taako had decided that it was too pathetic for him to keep watching, and they started talking a bit after that. Taako did  _ not _ mention it to Lup or Barry, because the two had just started an internship that Kravitz was also in. They had both been pretty loudly displeased with the whole deal, although Taako was starting to have a hard time understanding why.

Like, Kravitz was an asshole, but every single one of Taako’s friends was an asshole. More so, Kravitz was a fucking  _ hilarious _ asshole, which Taako had learned over a semester of laughing way too loud in a generally pretty chill arts class.

And like, he was sweet. The class was over three hours long, and so they had a break to go grab food in the middle. After a bit they somehow started getting their lunches together. The arts building was way in the back of campus, but there was a little portable that was used as a market where they could grab sandwiches and shit close by, with tables outside.

He was surprisingly easy to talk to, and a huge fucking goober. At one point he managed to get one of the birds that hung around trying to mooch food off of students into his lap, where it had fallen asleep. Taako had to run back to let the teacher know they’d be late coming back, because Kravitz refused to move until the bird woke up.

Taako had no fucking idea why his family hated him, and before he didn’t care. As the semester was coming to a close though, he was starting to recognize it was a problem, because he liked Kravitz. A lot.

So on the last day of class, as they were cleaning up their lockers and trying to figure out how to transport all their creations, Taako decided to just ask him.

“You know, for the life of me I cannot understand what my family’s problem is with you. Like, not gonna lie my dude, I thought you were a huge fucking dickwad from everything I’ve heard. What’s the deal with that?” he asked. Kravitz looked up from where he was contemplating what to do with a few failed wheel pieces that had never ended up getting fired. He had smudges of white clay dust across his face, and Taako had to resist the urge to reach over and wipe them off. Kravitz winced at the question, sucking in a breath.

“I mean, I always thought it had to be the whole, you know, arm incident,” he said, and Taako wasn’t surprised by that. That one was pretty clear cut. 

“Yeah, and that explains some of it, but what the fuck did you do to piss off  _ Barold?” _ Taako pressed, and this time a flash of annoyance passed over Kravitz's face, which hadn’t been what he was expecting.

“Right, Barry. I always forget you’re friends with him,” he said, and Taako nodded.

“Dude’s basically my brother. We’ve known each other forever, him and Lup got engaged a few months ago too. So it’ll be like, official soon enough,” Taako explained, and there was definitely some surprise on Kravitz’s face at that. No annoyance or bad will though, which Taako had been trying to pay a hell of a lot of attention to during that conversation.

“Oh wow, congratulations,” he said, and it sounded genuine enough. Then he really seemed to think the question over, before sighing. “It’s not- I have nothing  _ personal _ against him, I’m sure he’s fine. It’s, uh, an academic difference? Some scientific disagreements, can’t say I’m a huge fan of some of his theories is all,” Kravitz tried to explain.

From what Taako had heard from Barry, it made sense. It didn’t seem like he was trying to cover anything up either, more than he just could tell Taako wasn’t all that interested in the play by play of their heated nerd debates.

“Well, I’m glad you decided to give me a chance despite your family’s uh, pretty reasonable misgivings. It’s been- I’ve had a lovely time,” Kravitz added. Taako had realized he’d gotten pretty distracted from cleaning his locker by that point, shoving the rest of the junk in his bucket and figuring he’d deal with it later.

“I mean, no reason to sound like we ain’t ever gonna see each other again,” Taako said, not meeting Kravitz’s eyes. “Like, unless you’re packing your bags and moving away, which can’t blame you for that either,” he added. When Taako chanced looking over at him he could see the surprise on Kravitz’s face as he quickly shook his head.

“No, that’s not- I’m not going anywhere,” he said.

“Cool, hand over your phone then. We can grab lunch sometime that isn’t overpriced individually packed sandwiches,” Taako said, even though he knew at the moment it was a bad idea. If  _ anyone _ found out about this they’d have Taako’s head.

The delighted smile that stretched across Kravitz’s face as he handed over his phone definitely felt worth it though.

That had been the end of last semester, and with another one under their belts Taako still couldn’t say it wasn’t worth it yet. Even insisting to Kravitz that they couldn’t let any of his friends know, it had been great. Taako had dated plenty of dudes before, and he couldn’t say he’d ever just been this happy in a relationship, or having this much  _ fun, _ even when they couldn’t see each other.

Which unfortunately, happened to be a hell of a lot of the time. They didn’t have a class together this semester, which considering their majors yeah, the last one had been kind of a fluke. Taako couldn’t have Kravitz over whenever there was any chance of Lup or Barry coming home, or any of his other idiot friends. A lot of the times Lup and Barry were out overlapped with the times Kravitz was working in the internship with them, and then there were classes on top of that.

So yeah, Taako was not super thrilled about the fact that he finally had a boyfriend he like, fucking cared about. A lot. A relationship he was having fun with and a guy he actually felt like he could open up to, and no goddamn time to hang out together. It was complete bullshit.

That was over now though. It was summer, and neither of them were taking any classes over break, thank fuck. The internship was over too, which everyone seemed to be in a good mood about that. Sure, Taako figured he’d have to come up with some excuses as to why he was leaving the house a hell of a lot more this summer, but he could handle it.

So yeah, Taako was in a damn good mood. He’d fucking  _ earned _ this break and he was planning on making every moment of it count.

Or at least, he  _ had _ been.

“I know procrastinating is kinda your thing bro, but you gonna start even thinking of packing, or what?” Lup asked, standing in his doorway. Taako frowned in confusion, looking up from where he’d been texting Kravitz. They’d been planning on meeting up for lunch or something tomorrow since they were both finally free. Or well, Taako had thought he was free.

“Uh, for what? Who did you piss off and could we kill them instead of skipping town?” he asked. Lup snorted at that, rolling her eyes.

“No one, drama queen, we’re not skipping town,” she said. He kept staring at her, waiting for her to explain what the actual reason was then. Slowly the look of amusement on Lup’s face started to fade away. “Wait, did you seriously forget?” she asked, which only made Taako even more confused.

“Apparently, since I’ve got no goddamn clue what you’re talking about,” he said, not enjoying the incredulous look on his sister’s face at that.

“The trip?” she said, and Taako continued his blank stare as it failed to ring any bells. “The summer road trip? You know, the one we’ve  _ all _ been planning for the past fucking two and a half months? Holy shit are you serious?” Lup said, and Taako was frantically wracking his brain to try and remember  _ any _ of this.

Two and a half months, so right around when he and Krav started dating. He remembered Davenport getting a new RV, and he could vaguely remember talk about testing it out over the summer.

Lup asking if he was down to visit the Woven Gulch this summer, and his vague mumble of approval while watching a video Kravitz had sent him of his mom’s pet birds.

“Wait, y’all were  _ serious?” _ he blurted out, Lup looking at him like he was crazy.

“Yes! Of course we were serious! What do you thing we’ve been  _ doing?” _ she asked, and Taako threw his hands up.

“I don’t fucking know! I’ve been busy,” he insisted. Lup was giving him a  _ look _ now, and Taako tried to hide his own guilty look that wanted to leak out. He could not let anyone find out about this. Sure if like, shit kept being as good as it was with Kravitz now he knew he’d have to tell them  _ eventually, _ but he’d much rather do that on his own terms.

“Holy shit Ko, I know you’ve been distracted lately, but this is kinda one for the record books,” she said, and Taako huffed, leaning further back against his headboard and crossing his arms.

“When are we leaving?” he grumbled. He was trying to do the math in his head, how long it would take to get down to the Woven Gulch and back. Knowing their group, twice the length of time it would take any normal roadtrip, so at  _ least _ a week either way. Plus however long they were planning on actually staying there.

“Saturday,” Lup said, and Taako’s eyes widened at that, pushing himself up.

“What the fuck!? How long are we gonna be gone?” he asked, because he needed something concrete instead of just his own vague guesses.

“Like two, two and a half weeks? It’ll take five or six days to get there, then we’re gonna stay for three or four, and then heading back. Davenport’s gonna try and keep us from getting  _ too _ distracted along the way,” she said, and Taako groaned, flopping back down again.

He could not fucking believe this was happening.

“Don’t be like that bro, you got anything better to do?” Lup asked. It took every ounce of Taako’s self control not to respond with ‘yeah, my fucking boyfriend.' It would have  _ almost _ been worth it.

“I’ll start packing,” he grumbled. Under normal circumstances he’d be looking forward to fucking off with his family, but he’d had a  _ plan. _ He couldn’t even tell any of them  _ why _ he was annoyed with this either, which made the whole thing worse for some reason.

“Alright Taako, and hey, cheer up. It’ll be fun,” Lup said, and it was obvious she was trying to genuinely lift his spirits. It felt wrong, not being able to tell his sister why he was upset about all of this.

He really fucking liked Kravitz, but he didn’t want his sister hating his boyfriend either.

“Yeah, sure,” he muttered instead. There was a short moment where Lup stood in his doorway, a conflicted look on her face. Whatever she was debating she must've decided against, turning and leaving, shutting the door behind her. That at least Taako was grateful for.

Even still, he waited a few moments before moving. Heading over to his window, he opened it as wide as it would go, swinging his legs over and sitting out on the ledge. Pulling up Kravitz’s number he called him. It only took a ring before he answered.

“Kraaaaav,” he whined into the phone. He could hear Kravitz chuckle on the other end of the line, which would have gotten a smile out of him if he wasn’t all upset.

“Yes Taako?” he asked, amusement clear in his voice.

_ “Krav,” _ Taako just insisted again. This was so stupid, he told himself it was only gonna be two weeks. A little more than two weeks. He could last that long.

He’d been so excited to hang out with his boyfriend though. He didn’t  _ want _ to wait.

“Use your words dear,” Kravitz said, and Taako huffed, even though he knew he was right.

“I’m fucking leaving my dude,” he said, a clear pause of confusion on Kravitz’s end.

“What do you mean?” he asked, and Taako started swinging his legs slightly, slumping up against the window frame.

“Turns out my family planned a whole goddamn two and a half week road trip out to the Woven Gulch and we’re leaving on fucking  _ Saturday,” _ Taako explained. He’d feel a little bad about dropping this on Kravitz with absolutely no forewarning, but it wasn’t like he’d had it much better.

“Wait, did they do this without  _ telling _ you?” Kravitz asked. It was a fair question, considering Taako’s reaction.

“No… not exactly,” he muttered. He couldn’t see Kravitz right now but he could imagine the questioning look he was probably giving his phone. “They might’ve mentioned it before. I’d been kinda distracted,” he added.

“What could have possibly been  _ that _ distracting?” Kravitz asked, a slightly incredulous tone to his voice. Taako huffed, glad no one could see the way his face was darkening in a blush.

“Well, you see there’s this guy I’ve been talking to lately. He’s kinda a dick, but I really like him,” Taako said.

“Oh…  _ oh,” _ Kravitz said, and it was easy to pinpoint the moment when it clicked in his head. Taako couldn’t help but snort at that, a smile working its way onto his face despite his best efforts.

“You fucking dork,” Taako said, his voice more fond than he usually allowed.

“I really like you too Taako,” Kravitz responded, and he sounded so genuine. It was so fucking unfair. Taako threw his head back, groaning in frustration again.

“Ugh! This fucking sucks,” he snapped.

“How long are you going to be gone again?” Kravitz asked, and Taako stopped his loud complaining for fear of alerting Lup. The whole reason he was sitting out like this was to lessen the chance of her overhearing after all.

“Two and a half weeks, give or take,” he said, and he swore he could hear Kravitz thinking it over and doing the calculations in his head.

“I guess that’s not too bad…” he muttered, not sounding all that convinced.

“It’s the worst thing  _ ever,” _ Taako insisted. He heard Kravitz snort on the other end of the line.

“Taako, it is not the worst thing ever. It’s not even three weeks,” he said, and Taako shook his head.

“The worst ever. It’s not fair, I’ve already been missing you and now I’m gonna have to wait even longer. We can’t even meet up tomorrow now because I’m gonna have to spend the whole day packing!” Taako said. Kravitz was quiet for a moment, and Taako was suddenly worried that maybe it was too much. He was saying too much too fast and it was going to weird Kravitz out and make him leave.

“You’ve been missing me?” Kravitz asked finally, an almost hopeful tone to his voice that took Taako off guard.

“Yeah, I mean… I got to see you more  _ before _ we started dating than I do now. It’s stupid, I was looking forward to just, ya know, hanging out this summer,” he muttered. It was more than he was usually willing to open up to someone other than Lup, but Kravitz made this shit  _ easy. _

“I know, I was too,” Kravitz said, sighing softly on the other side. It was so dumb. Sure they’d have the rest of the summer once Taako got back, but he was having a hard time caring about that right now. Taako couldn’t even consider bailing on his family either though. The dumb, sensible part of him that loved their little makeshift family of outcasts knew he would regret doing that.

He just wished Kravitz could come  _ too. _

Hmm.

Well, there was an idea.

“What if we just… brought you along,” Taako suggested, a haphazard plan already starting to form in his head. It would be a risky gambit for sure, but if anyone could pull it off, it was Taako. 

“I don’t think your family would appreciate that very much,” Kravitz said, but Taako shook his head, a smile starting to form on his face now.

“Yeah, yeah no, we still not broaching that subject. They don’t have to  _ know _ you’re coming,” he said, and Taako was getting excited now. Sure, Kravitz could completely shoot the idea down, but he also wasn’t thrilled with not being able to see each other for another two, almost three weeks.

“I uh, I think they would notice. You said it’s a road trip, right? I’m not going to hide in your trunk Taako.”

“That’s what she said,” Taako responded automatically, pretty pleased with the sputtering he could hear coming from Kravitz.

“That’s not- how does that one even  _ work?” _ he asked, and Taako shifted so that he was sitting curled up in the window now.

“Just think about it,” he said, sure his grin could be heard over the phone. He was pretty damn sure Kravitz was smiling too.

“You’re ridiculous,” he said, an obvious affection in his voice that made Taako’s heart  _ do _ things.

“Anyway,” he said, jumping away from  _ those _ emotions. Kravitz made it a lot easier to be open about junk yeah, but not that open yet. He didn’t want to scare him away, this was all still relatively new after all. “You should come.”

“That’s what she-” Kravitz started, but Taako cut in before he could finish.

“You can’t just say it right back! And that one’s too easy!” he argued, and he could hear Kravitz laughing. After a minute though he managed to bring himself back under control again.

“I still don’t know how you’re expecting me to tag along on a road trip without anyone else noticing,” he said. Which wasn’t an automatic no.

“Okay, like, Davenport got this new, super fucking tripped out RV. There’s like, a sectioned off room and a  _ loft _ and shit! We could totally hide you,” Taako explained. He wasn’t saying it wouldn’t be difficult, but he was more willing to try if it meant getting to see Kravitz all the time.

“Taako… that’s a bad idea,” Kravitz said. It still wasn’t a no, and Taako had  _ heard _ that hesitation.

“Babe, I don’t  _ have _ bad ideas,” he said, which got a snort out of Kravitz.

“For two weeks though? That could end really badly,” Kravitz insisted. Taako knew he wasn’t wrong about that, but for some reason he was no less determined. They could make it work. He  _ wanted _ to make this work.

What he wanted was for his family to not hate his boyfriend, but that would require first telling them all that he started dating a dude they all openly dislike behind their backs. That was a future him problem.

“We really shouldn’t,” Kravitz continued, not sounding as convinced as he should.

“I’m not hearing a  _ no,” _ Taako said in a singsong voice, which got another laugh out of Kravitz. He really liked being able to make him laugh so much.

“Taako, I think Magnus would throw me out of a moving car if he found me hiding away with you,” Kravitz argued, still laughing somewhat.

“Coward,” Taako said. This should just be a joke, he shouldn’t actually be considering hiding his boyfriend away in an RV for two fucking weeks. He was very much considering it though, and he was really hoping Kravitz would agree to it.

“You’re the worst,” Kravitz said, no bite in his voice what so ever.

“You’re the one who decided to date me babe,” Taako countered.

“Yeah, I did,” Kravitz said, a fucking  _ smittened _ tone to his voice and Taako could feel his face heating up. God, this was the worst. Being in l- dating. Dating was the worst.

“So um, you said something about a loft?” Kravitz asked after a moment, and Taako felt his smile start to spread back over his face once again.

“Sure did my guy, you interested in checking it out?” he asked, honestly shocked that Kravitz was starting to get on board for this plan. That was genuinely the last thing he expected. He couldn’t complain though.

“I think I might be, as long as you’re there too, of course,” he said, and Taako was full out grinning now.

“Well then, I guess we both better start packing then,” he said, and Kravitz snorted.

“Yes, I suppose so,” he said. There was a small beat, and then he started speaking again. “Hey Taako?” he asked.

“Mhmm?”

“This is a bad idea,” Kravitz repeated, and Taako nodded vigorously at that.

“Oh, the worst,” he agreed. They were still going to do it though.

Taako never tried to pretend he wasn’t a complete and utter dumbass after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so this is an incredibly silly idea i've had for a while now and decided to finally try and get out for taakitz week. we'll see how successful I am at that. i'm a huge sucker for the secret dating trope and i don't use it nearly enough, and also wacky rom com style shenanigans, which is very unsurprising. 
> 
> as always, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy!


	2. Chapter 2

The morning of the trip Taako was starting to have second thoughts on this whole grand ‘sneak the boyfriend along’ plan. There was no way it wasn't going to be a complete disaster. Kravitz was right, it was a bad idea and they shouldn't do it. They  _ wouldn’t  _ do it, if they had a single brain cell between the two of them. Taako should just be patient and wait to spend time with his boyfriend later, once he was back from this trip. They could still text, he could run off and call him at the pit stops, it would be fine. It wouldn’t be that different from the way they’d been since they started dating.

Taako told himself that he'd tell Kravitz he changed his mind. This was a dumb plan and he was dumb for suggesting it. He'd apologize for making Kravitz spend the whole weekend packing and getting up at ass o'clock in the morning to get to the RV before anyone else, but there was no way they could go through with this. His mind was made up.

**'I'm here'** a text from Kravitz came in, and Taako pushed off where he was leaning against the RV. Looking around it only took a moment to spot Kravitz nervously glancing around the corner of a close by building. His face lit up as soon as his eyes landed on Taako and  _ damn it. _

There went any fucking rational thought Taako might have had before. He barely managed to look around to make sure no one else had shown up yet before rushing over to Kravitz, already smiling like an idiot.

He had no idea how he managed to fall so fast. It wasn’t like him. Despite that, he couldn’t rightfully complain either.

"Hey babe, fancy seeing you here," Taako said, moving behind the corner of the building and out of view of the RV. Kravitz was grinning, letting the duffel bag he had slung over his shoulder fall to the ground so he could pull Taako into a hug. Taako immediately took the opportunity to kiss him, because it had been way too fucking long between finals and family.

God, yeah he was not going to wait another two goddamn weeks to get to do that again.

"Yes, it's almost like you planned it," Kravitz said after pulling away, amusement clear in his voice. Then there was a look of nervousness there too, which was to be expected considering the dumb bullshit they were getting ready for. "Listen Taako it's- are you sure this is a good idea?" Kravitz asked. Which, okay. If Kravitz decided to back out that would take the poor planning out of Taako's hands. He’d be more disappointed than he wanted to admit though, but he wouldn't force him into this mess.

"I've never had a good idea in my life Krav, and I'm not about to start now," he said with confidence instead. It got a laugh out of Kravitz, who then sighed.

"I just don't want you to feel obligated to uh, this. To me coming along. I understand if you've changed your mind," he said. Taako ran a hand through his hair, clicking his tongue as he tried to figure out how to word this.

"I mean like, I did change my mind, but then I changed it again, and it might have been flipping back and forth a lot in the last like, twenty minutes? But right now it’s firmly in the camp of fucking doing this, because fuck that and fuck waiting," he said. Kravitz laughed again, but there was actually some relief there this time.

"If you're sure about that, this is- well, this is certainly the stupidest thing I've ever done in my life, but it's- I'm actually kind of looking forward to it? I'm probably going to regret this," he said, and Taako was full on grinning now. Kravitz actually wanted to do this, so fuck it, they were gonna do this.

"In that case they'll be plenty of time for regrets later. We got a boy to hide before the rest of the chucklefucks start showing up," Taako said. Grabbing a hold of Kravitz's hand he started to lead him over to the RV, almost forgetting to give him enough time to grab his bag up again.

"I don't think we're supposed to be aiming for regrets Taako," Kravitz said, still smiling and letting himself be dragged along despite that. "Wow, you weren't joking about the RV," he added as they got closer, the mammoth of a vehicle looming over them, and Taako nodded.

"Yeah, Davenport doesn't fuck around," he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a set of keys. He grinned as he dangled them in front of Kravitz's face. "Would you like the grand tour?" he asked, and he enjoyed the amused, knowing smile that slowly formed on Kravitz’s face.

"You're not supposed to have those, are you?" he asked. Taako snorted out a laugh, heading over to the RV door with Kravitz following along.

"Hey, Lulu needs to be more careful of where she puts her shit when having date night with Barold if she doesn't want me using it," he said with a shrug. Heading into the RV, the air was pretty stuffy inside, so Taako left the door open so it could circulate. He pried open a window as Kravitz slowly walked in. Turning back towards him, Taako threw his arms out in a grand gesture. “Welcome to the Street Blaster!” he shouted, getting a surprised laugh out of Kravitz.

“The  _ street blaster?” _ he asked.

“Davenport has some very unique naming conventions,” Taako said, and Kravitz nodded slowly in agreement as he started moving further inside.

"Ok, its very big for an RV," he said, and Taako was nice enough not to tease him about pointing out the obvious. "How many people are coming again?" he asked, pulling back a thick curtain that blocked off the back area. Taako had only been vaguely paying attention to everything the first time they showed him through the place, so it was good to have a refresher. The back was the main sleeping area, a big bed taking up most of the space.

"Uuuh let's see, lets seeee, not including you Mr. Stowaway? Davenport and Merle… Lup and Barold, Lucretia, and Mags. So, six, wait fuck no seven, forgot to count myself," Taako mumbled, counting people on his fingers as he thought it over. He could see the uncertainty and fear starting to form on Kravitz's face as he spoke, obviously imagining six other people in this space.

"Taako, that's a lot. Are you sure about this?" he asked again and like, he wasn't. Taako very much wasn't sure about any of this.

"It's your call babe, you're the one who's gotta hide. Wanna check out the loft before deciding?" he asked, and Kravitz nodded.

"Yeah alright, that sounds good," he said, still clearly a bit nervous about all of this. Taako tried to give him a reassuring grin, but it probably came off as more mischievous than anything. Which was fair, all things considered.

Taako headed over to the loft, a big curtained area up above the driver's seat. Pulling the retractable ladder down, Taako headed up first. Kravitz followed after, shoving his duffle bag off into a corner once they were both up. It was bigger than Taako expected, although even sitting down Kravitz had to lean forward a little so his head didn’t hit the ceiling. There was a small sleeping mat up there, and a little light up in the ceiling that Taako clicked on.

"Tadaa, perfect," he said, closing the curtain with a flourish.

"Two weeks up here might be a little much," Kravitz said, although he was starting to sound more amused than worried again.

"I think it's cozy," Taako said, spreading out as best as he could on the sleep mat. Kravitz was watching him, clearly debating something in his head. Probably debating a lot of things.

"Yeah, you certainly look comfortable," he said, and Taako's grin widened a little more at that.

"Well, you're free to join me my dude, or you can stay where you are. Maybe your back feels good all hunched and shit, I don’t know your life," he said. They shouldn't be wasting too much time, if Krav wasn't actually staying they should have him leave pretty soon.

But if he wasn't gonna see his boyfriend for another two and a half weeks he sure as fuck was gonna make the most of the time they had left. Kravitz seemed to have the same idea, crawling over so he was hovering over Taako, his hands pressing down into the mat on either side of him.

"I suppose this might be a little more comfortable," he said. Taako snorted and instead of saying anything else he grabbed the sides of Kravitz's face, pulling him down into a kiss. He followed without any hesitation, rearranging himself so that he was lying comfortably on top of Taako without breaking the kiss. 

Taako had planned for it to be a quick kiss before he figured Kravitz would decide he was gonna leave. Instead Taako found himself getting lost in it, until he maybe forgot that they were kinda on a time crunch.

"Whoever's in here has thirty seconds to show yourself before I come looking, and you better hope I don't find you myself!" an angry and very familiar voice shouted into the RV without warning. Taako jerked back, Kravitz frantically falling over himself to get off of him, definitely hitting his head in the process. Taako would have winced at the banging sound it made if he wasn't trying to situate himself.

"Stand down captain! Its me!" Taako shouted back since there was no way he hasn't heard them clunking around just now. When he looked over at Kravitz he was staring at him in a panic, quickly mouthing what Taako assumed was 'what do we do?'

"What? Taako? What are you doing here already? Get down here," Davenport called up, equal parts relief and annoyance in his voice.

"Gimme a sec," he yelled back. Kravitz was still looking at him for an answer. Taako was not about to risk talking, instead holding a finger up to his mouth in a shushing motion, followed by holding his whole hand up in a way he hoped got across the message of 'wait here.' It must have done something, because Kravitz nodded. "Kay, coming down," Taako said, quickly making his way to the ladder.

Maybe a little too quickly. His foot missed a rung and he tried to scramble for a hold only to swiftly lose his grip, falling in a heap on the floor. Opening his eyes he saw Davenport staring down at him with an unamused expression, what looked like a fucking rapier in his hand.

"Morning captain," Taako said with a shaky grin, falling back on the old nickname. Davenport sighed, running a hand through his hair as Taako slowly climbed back to his feet.

"Good morning Taako, you're here early," Davenport said, the unspoken 'too early for me to deal with this shit' heard loud and clear.

"Yeah, say Dav, why do you have a fucking sword?" Taako asked. God, that question probably didn't do anything good for whatever panic Kravitz was going through listening in. Taako felt several quick buzzes from his phone in his pocket and yeah, couldn't blame the dude for freaking out a little right now.

He’d have to wait a minute for a response though, because Taako had shit to deal with.

"Well, because I came out and saw the windows and door open and not hide nor hair of anyone I had given a key to," Davenport said, slinging said sword over his shoulder in a slightly too casual manner. "Why are you here so early anyway? I figured you’d be coming with Lup and Barry," he pressed. Taako had hoped he wouldn't question that one, but he wasn't surprised that that wasn't happening.

"Oh you know, just real excited to get on the road, and uh, figured it's first come first serve, wanted the best spot on the RV," he said. Davenport was still giving him a very skeptical look, and Taako hoped the rumpled clothes and mused hair could be passed for having fallen off a ladder.

"And I suppose that would be the loft?" Davenport asked and Taako quickly nodded.

"Uhuh, legally it belongs to me now," he said. More buzzing in his pocket, he'd have to look at that soon. He resisted for a bit longer, not looking away while Davenport seemed to study him.

It felt like a fucking century before Davenport finally shrugged, taking his eyes off of Taako and moving to go pick up a sheath Taako hadn’t noticed before.

“Alright, just  _ please _ give a warning next time,” he said, and Taako had to resist letting out a sign of relief. The moment was cut short when Davenport turned back towards him, a suspicious frown on his face once again. “Wait, I gave Lup keys. Does she know you have them?” he asked, and Taako shrugged casually, leaning against the side of the little booth table.

“She’ll figure it out soon enough. She’s smart,” he said, and Davenport sighed heavily at that.

“I’m going to call her,” he said, and Taako quickly nodded.

“Right right, you do that and I’ll just hang out here and ya know, wait for everyone to show up. Get the party started,” he said. If he could get Davenport out for five minutes they could sneak Kravitz out before the point of no return.

“Oh no, since you’re here you might as well help out,” Davenport said, grabbing Taako’s sleeve to start pulling him along out of the RV.

“That’s not- I could help  _ inside _ of the RV. Clean up and everything,” he tried, but Davenport shook his head.

“It’s already plenty clean. Not like you all won’t wreck it in a day anyway,” he said, which like, was fair. Taako glanced back at the loft as they headed out, and he could see Kravitz peaking out between the curtain. As soon as he caught his eye he could see Kravitz mouthing his name frantically.

In response all Taako could do was mouth back  _ ‘I don’t know’  _ before Davenport was talking again and he turned his attention quickly back before he noticed.

“I was actually hoping you’d take a look at these little portable uh, grill things? They were on sale and I thought we could use them for a cook out? You’d know better than anyone if they were worth bringing along though,” he explained. Taako nodded along a little frantically, not actually paying much attention to the words coming out of Davenport’s mouth.

“Yeah yeah grills, sounds good! Hot dogs and shit, excellent my man,” he said, fumbling to pull out his phone. As he expected there were several texts from Kravitz in there, which he quickly read.

**‘Sword???’**

**‘Taako why does he have a /sword/’**

**‘You never mentioned a sword’**

**‘This is very bad’**

**‘Oh god do not let him come up here I don’t want to have to break up with you if your family stabs me’**

**‘Babe this was a bad idea’**

Yeah okay, those were all pretty valid. Taako would also be upset if his family stabbed his boyfriend, for a number of reasons. Him and Davenport were out of the RV now, and Taako was just about to text Kravitz to make a run for it.

Before he could hit send he saw another car pull up in front of Davenports house. Taako felt his stomach drop as Lucretia got out of the car, giving them both a soft smile when she caught sight of them.

And then the passenger side door opened, and Taako felt the panic start to grip him harder as he instantly recognized the kid jumping out of the car, an excited grin on his face.

“Mr. Taako! You’re here early!” he said, running up to them, Lucretia following at a more reasonable pace.

“Are Lup and Barry already inside?” she asked, and Taako felt his phone buzz in his hand again. Shit shit  _ shit. _

“Nope, Taako’s the first one here,” Davenport answered for him. Taako could see the looks of surprise on Lucretia’s and Angus’s faces at that, trying to read Kravitz’s text at the same time.

**‘You’re out. Should I make a run for it?’**

**‘No’ ** Taako sent back immediately. “Yeah no just cha’ boy,” he said aloud, because he couldn’t just stand there like a dumbass not saying anything. “Didn’t know you were tagging along too shortstack,” he added to Angus. Fuck, he would have definitely reconsidered the whole plan if he knew Angus was gonna be here. Nosey ass kid got into everything.

Sure, Taako had a soft spot for the brat, not that he’d ever admit that to anyone. Still, he wasn’t so soft to want to risk the kid blowing up his whole spot.

“Oh really sir? Because I’ve been very excited for this trip and getting to spend time with all of you and everyone together on a road trip!” he said, and Taako nodded along as he read another message from Kravitz and typed up his own response.

**‘Why not?’**

**‘More just showed up. We’re right outside too risky’ ** Taako sent back.

“Well, if you two want to start putting your things in the RV it’s open. Come on Taako,” Davenport said, and Lucretia and Angus had started heading back to their car to grab their shit.

“I already called the loft!” Taako shouted after them, very reluctant as he let Davenport continue to lead him back into his house. In response Angus turned back around and gave him a big thumbs up.

God, this was going to go so fucking bad.

There was a brief moment as he followed Davenport that he could look at his phone again. There was another message from Kravitz, a short and simple response to Taako’s last update.

**‘Fuck.'**

Which, yeah. Summed shit up pretty damn well.

**‘They're heading your way now, look alive starshine,’** Taako sent him for warning. God, this was not going how Taako expected it. If he was being honest, as much as he didn’t  _ want _ to spend two weeks without seeing his boyfriend, he didn’t  _ actually _ think he was gonna drag him along as a goddamn stowaway. It'd been a bullshit joke that they both figured they'd back out of at the last moment.

They might not have a choice though if they didn’t find some way to get him off the goddamn RV without being seen before they left.

Or Lucretia and Angus would find Kravitz immediately and the gig would be up.  _ Then _ Taako would be spending two weeks without his boy and with his family on his ass about his dating choices. That was the worst case scenario. 

“Well, here they are. Just let me know if you think they’d be useful to bring. I’m going to call Lup before she starts to panic about the keys,” Davenport said, stopping in front of two unopened boxes of these little mini-grill things. They kind of looked like one of those as seen on TV gadgets. Taako couldn’t give half a shit, but he pried one of the boxes open to take a look while Davenport called Lup.

It looked like it would make heat and wouldn’t completely catch everything on fire, so that was good enough. That was all you needed for cooking if you had enough skill, which Taako definitely did.

“Yeah, these look good cap’n! Want me to take em to the RV?” he asked. Davenport looked over at him, a phone still up to his ear.

“That would be great Taako!” he shouted over. Taako quickly shoved the one grill back in its box before gathering up both of them and running back to the RV.

As he went inside, Taako was half expecting to see Kravitz tied to a chair in the middle of some sort of interrogation situation. Lucretia and Angus would probably be the least bad people to find him, mainly since neither of them had met him before from what Taako knew.

That didn’t mean that upon finding some guy they didn’t know hiding out in the RV they wouldn’t fucking pounce. They were both sweet as could be when they wanted, but they could also be goddamn terrifying.

Luckily, that wasn’t the scene that greeted Taako. Instead it was just Angus inside, looking through the large cabinet on the right. There seemed to be a bunch of cleaning supplies and also some board games stashed away in there, the kid clearly more interested in the games than the mops.

“Hey, where’s Luce?” Taako asked, shuffling the boxes in his arms as he spoke.

“Outside, she’s loading packages in the cargo area under the RV,” Angus said, looking up at him. “You can pack those away there too sir,” he added, looking at the mini grills. Taako nodded, not too thrilled about having to head outside again.

“Yeah okay, I’ll just take these out there and then be right back,” he said, maybe in a slightly louder voice than needed. He was pretty sure Angus wouldn’t realize anything strange probably.

Lucretia was out where Angus said, putting some bags away in the lower cargo compartment. Taako immediately headed over to try and shove the grills as fast as possible.

“Good morning Taako, it’s a surprise to see you up so early,” Lucretia said, and Taako nodded, his brain still mostly taken up with trying to figure out how to get Kravitz the fuck out of there before they left.

“Uhuh, oh ya know, early to rise early to grind or whatever,” he said, maybe a little dismissively. Lucretia nodded, looking more amused than anything. Normally he’d be chill to stay and hang with Luce, but he was kind in panic mode here. Luckily she didn’t seem too intent on continuing the conversation, and Taako turned tail and headed right back inside of the RV.

Angus was still inside, carefully setting up the few bags that he’d brought with him instead of packing away. It did not look like he was intent on leaving anytime soon.

“Hey uh, pumpkin, you wanna go head out and help Luce with some of those bags?” he asked, hoping he could get the kid out of the RV for a few seconds. Just long enough to shove Kravitz out a window or some shit. To his increasing panic and frustration, Angus shook his head.

“Ms. Lucretia said she had the bags under control sir, I’m helping unpack in here. It’ll go a faster that way,” he said happily. Taako chewed on his lip some, trying to think of some other reason to get the kid out. Before he could think of something though he felt his phone buzzing again, quickly pulling it out and reading Kravitz’s message.

**‘Who’s with you? Child???’**

**‘Angus I didn’t know he was coming,’ ** he sent back. The kid didn’t seem too interested in whatever he was doing on his phone, which was the only saving grace. Taako had positioned himself in front of the ladder to the loft, trying to look like he was leaning on it casually and not purposefully blocking the path.

**‘Can you just tell him not to mention me to anyone and let me sneak out?’ ** Kravitz sent back. Taako had to carefully keep himself from grimacing at the mere thought.

**‘Oh fuck no angus would not keep his mouth shut’ ** he typed back as fast as possible.

**‘How else am I supposed to leave then?’** Kravitz asked, which was a real fucking good question.

**‘I’m working on it my dude,’ ** Taako said instead. Before he could figure anything out though the door to the RV opened again and Lucretia came back inside. Fuck.

“Lup and Barry are on their way,” she said as she came in, and it was real hard to keep himself from groaning at that. This was real real bad. And it was steadily getting worse as Taako failed to get Kravitz out of the loft and more people started showing up.

Merle was next, and honestly the fact that he wasn’t the first person out here after Davenport spoke to how fucking lazy the dude was, since he lived right next door. Then Magnus burst in loud as ever, and Taako was quickly losing hope of getting out of their terrible decisions unscathed. All he could do was stay hovering around the ladder to the loft, counting his lucky stars that no one had tried to go up there yet.

Lup and Barry were the last to arrive, and Taako couldn’t even be that annoyed when Lup immediately came over to him and snatched the keys back. He kind of deserved that one.

“What the hell bro, thought you weren’t even feeling this whole trip,” she said, and Taako gave a mock look of offense at that.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve been nothing but excited to send two weeks in a giant car with my dearest friends and family,” he said, which honestly wasn’t as much of a lie as it sounded. Normally he’d be real chill with the idea. The only problem was that this was not a normal situation. 

“Well, looks like that’s everything,” Davenport said, wiping his hands off as he came back into the RV from whatever he was doing outside. Taako had been too panicked over more and more people showing up to pay that much attention. “Let’s get this show on the road,” he added, and Taako felt his heart sink as his phone started to vibrate with more incoming messages. He was fairly sure at least that the noise was completely unnoticed under the sound of everyone else cheering.

Instead of sitting down in a chair, Taako planted himself right in front of the ladder, insisting he was fine when Lucretia asked if he wanted to move somewhere off the floor. He could feel the RV start to move under him as he pulled out his phone. God, there was no going back now.

**‘Shit. Shit Taako what do we do’**

**‘Are we really leaving?’**

**‘Oh god its moving’**

Taako couldn’t blame Kravitz for freaking out in the slightest. Neither of them actually expected to pull this off once it was happening. They were stuck in it now though, and so they would have to make it work. Taako tried to tell himself that maybe it could still be fun. He at least wouldn’t have to go two and a half weeks without seeing his boyfriend at least.

**‘Welp. Hope you like road trips babe.’**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> second chapter for second day of taakitz week. i'm gonna try to do daily updates for as long as I can, which at the very least should be one more day. hopefully more tho, depending on how much time i have to write between other things. still, i'm having a lot of fun with this fic, i can never get enough wacky shenanigans. very excited that others seem to be on board for this ridiculousness. 
> 
> as always, thanks for reading and i hope you enjoyed!


	3. Chapter 3

Well, they were on the road now, and Taako was only mildly freaking out about the boyfriend he had stashed in the overhead loft.

“So, you all know the drill, we’ll be on the road all day today, got a lot of ground to cover,” Davenport said from his seat up front. Taako couldn’t see him from where he was sitting, but he didn’t need to. He could still imagine how his eyes rolled at the collective groaning of everyone else in the vehicle.

“Come on Cap’n’port, can’t we start out at a chill pace for once?” Magnus complained, like he did every trip they had. Taako typically joined in on the whining, but this time he was just making vague noises of displeasure.

“You have the most energy on the first day. Might as well put that to use before you all start losing your stamina and complaining even more,” Davenport answered. His logic made sense, but that didn’t mean everyone else wouldn’t complain about the damn eleven hours on the road he always insisted on getting out the first day.

Honestly though, right now Taako wasn’t complaining about that too much. The more they were on the road the sooner they could get this whole thing over with and he could go back to safely not hiding a secret boyfriend.

**‘You doing okay babe?' ** Taako sent Kravitz a text, actually starting to feel guilty about dragging the dude into all of this. He knew this was pretty damn far out of his comfort zone, even if he’d been amused by the idea at the start.

**‘I’m fine, at the very least it’s comfortable up here.’ ** Kravitz said, and yeah, that was good at least, the loft was a nice little area. It would probably start to suck around hour seven or eight, but hopefully Taako could find some way to sneak him out during the rest stops to stretch his legs.

**‘Sorry you’re stuck up there,’** Taako sent, and it was real damn rare for him to apologize for anything, but yeah, this one was on him. This was his mistake. Well, he guessed Kravitz also got pretty distracted before they could sneak him back out, so not entirely Taako’s fault. Like, seventy percent Taako’s bad.

‘ **It’s okay. This was the plan, right?’** Kravitz said, and Taako barely managed to keep himself from snorting at that.

**‘Fucking fair enough my dude. Yeah like it or not we stuck to the goddamn plan,’** Taako sent back. He didn’t realize he’d been smiling all dumbly at his phone until a small balled up piece of paper bounced off his head and the smile dropped as he looked up to see the culprit.

“Oh my god bro, could you stop proving every newspaper article about millennials right for five seconds and get off your phone?” Lup complained, clearly the one to have thrown the paper ball at him. Taako huffed, putting his phone even closer to his face in response.

“Fuck you, I’m gonna stare at my phone even more now,” he said. At least now it was him being contrary rather than actually interested in his phone. He was gonna have to be a little less obvious with how often he was on the thing now. He hadn’t realized it had been quite so noticeable, but this wasn’t the first time Lup had commented on it.

**‘Dear, interact with your family. I’ll be fine,’ ** a message from Kravitz came through, and Taako struggled not to outright pout at that. Instead he did the next best thing, sending a pouting emoji to him.

**‘Fiiiine, if you insist,’ ** he sent. Despite that Taako still waited a moment before actually putting his phone in his pocket. Just so it wouldn’t seem like he immediately gave into Lup’s demands. She still snorted when he put it away, and he stuck his tongue out in protest.

Slowly over the next couple of hours Taako started to relax though. He was getting some shit from everyone over his apparent recent neglect of them or whatever, but Taako told them that if they wanted his attention so bad then they had to be more interesting.

Still, he guessed he hadn’t had a lot of time to actually chill with them either lately, between trying to juggle everything else. So it was kind of nice, listening to their bullshit and loudly complaining over the food choices that were packed without his consultation.

The only thing that would make it better was if he wasn’t constantly terrified of someone wanting to go up into the loft. He’d managed to pull the ladder out enough that he could sit on the rungs and look a little more chill than some paranoid guard dog. He wasn’t sure how much that would help if someone wanted to actually move past him, but it would work for now.

Also, Kravitz really wasn’t helping the whole ‘I’m definitely not hiding anything’ charade Taako was  _ trying _ to pull.

He felt his phone buzz in his lap again. He had it in his pocket before, but it was getting too noticeable with him having to pull it back out every couple of minutes.

**‘Wait. Wait Taako what do they *mean* you’re allergic to peanuts?’ ** Kravitz’s incoming text read. For the first hour or so after telling Taako to interact with his family he had been basically silent. Taako felt a little bad about that, but he was starting to realize that was the much safer option. It was real damn hard to read Krav’s commentary on their bullshit with a straight face.

It was real hard to do basically anything straight where Kravitz was concerned, but that was beside the point.

**‘Oh yeah, did I never mention that?’ ** he sent back, immediately seeing the little dots showing that Kravitz was typing.

**‘No! I’ve seen you eat peanuts in things before! I’ve *given* you things with peanuts in them!’ ** Kravitz’s text came, and god, it was hard to fight back the smile trying to make its home on his face. He could imagine Kravitz’s incredulous and panicked expresssion over this particular revelation.

**‘What can I say reese cups are fucking delicious my dude,’ ** he sent back. He could see Kravitz typing again, but he flipped his phone back over to put his attention back to everyone else. They were gonna get even more suspicious if he kept smiling at his phone so damn much. God, where did Kravitz get off being so… him.

They were starting to round about hour five now, and Taako could tell that he wasn’t the only one getting antsy. Davenport must’ve also seen it, because he finally relented on a small pit stop. About fifteen minutes later they were pulling up to some roadside attraction, a little gift shop with a bunch of plaques about the local wildlife and junk. Interesting enough to keep their attention for like half an hour while they stretched their legs.

Normally Taako would be one of the first leaping out of the RV, tired and bored of sitting in an RV with limited entertainment for so long. This time though he hung back, watching as everyone else started making their way out instead.

He’d been hoping no one else would notice, but he figured he wouldn’t be so lucky. He was correct, Lup stopping in the doorway as she headed out. She turned back and looked at where he was still lounging as much as one could on a ladder. He had his phone out again, this time trying to use it as an excuse for his distraction.

“You coming bro?” she asked, and Taako nodded, figuring he might as well take the moment to read the texts Kravitz had sent him. There were several more messages detailing Kravitz’s panic over his eating habits, and Taako hoped Lup wouldn’t notice the way he had to bite his lip to keep from smiling again. 

“Yeah, be there in a minute,” he said, not offering any further explanation than that. He could see Lup hesitate again, before sighing and rolling her eyes. Yeah, he was being kind of a brat lately, but it wasn’t his fault they all decided Kravitz was a shitty person before getting to know him.

“Alright, meet you out there then,” she said, finally leaving the RV with everyone else. Taako waited just long enough that he was sure no one was going to jump immediately back in before getting up and climbing up the ladder, poking his head into the loft.

“How you holding up?” he asked, a huge grin having made its way onto his face at the sight of Kravitz. He was laying out on the mat, and he must’ve packed a pillow because he had one propping him up as he scrolled on his phone. Kravitz put it away immediately and moved to smile reassuringly at Taako.

“I’m holding up at least. It could certainly be worse,” he said, and Taako nodded. So far, this wasn’t the worst thing ever. It was actually kind of nice.

“Well, everyone should be out for a little bit. You can come down and like, stretch your legs some. Run to the bathroom if you gotta, that sort of stuff,” he said, and Kravitz nodded, already starting to move.

“I think I’ll take you up on that, definitely getting a little stiff up here,” he said. Taako moved so that he was no longer taking up the ladder, keeping an eye on the door as Kravitz climbed down.

“Okay, I should head out there before anyone gets too suspicious. Like I said, stretch some. Feel free to steal some snacks and shit from down here. I’ll text you if I see anyone coming for the RV,” Taako said, and Kravitz nodded. He was taking the whole thing surprisingly well, which somehow managed to increase how fucking much Taako liked the guy. Most dudes would be pretty reasonably pissed off about this whole thing, but Kravitz was rolling with the punches of Taako’s bullshit at every turn. It was kind of incredible. Kravitz was kind of incredible.

It kind of made Taako’s chest feel like it was going to explode. Before he went and did or said something he’d regret Taako reached over and pulled Kravitz into a deep kiss. It couldn’t exactly last very long given the circumstances, but it was still real nice and Kravitz looked maybe a little dazed when Taako pulled away.

“See ya in a bit babe,” he said. Kravitz nodded dumbly, a huge smile on his face as he did. With that Taako actually turned and headed out of the RV. Looking around, he saw Lup waiting by the front door of the little gift shop, and Taako had to school his face into something that looked a little less ridiculous before heading over to her.

“Took you long enough,” she said, not sounding actually bothered about having to wait for him.

“I could  _ not _ use the bathroom if that’s what you want,” he said, moving past her to head into the gift shop. She followed along after him, and once they were inside Taako could immediately see most of their party. They seemed to be just about the only people inside at the moment, which wasn’t that much of a surprise. That’s how it tended to go with these little rinkydink places they stopped at along their trips. Davenport preferred them to the super popular and busy tourist traps, and Taako could see the appeal. You tended to get more authentic shit at these kinds of places.

From a quick glance, Taako could see Lucretia checking out some of the pamphlets on local wildlife, Magnus posing next to a large statue of a bear while Merle took his picture (at, what even Taako could tell from this far away, a horrendously bad angle) and Barry already nervously apologizing to the chasher about  _ something.  _ Davenport and Angus were nowhere to be seen, but some of the aisles they had set up in here were kind of tall, so Taako figured they were hidden away in there somewhere.

Him and Lup started looking through the place together, the both of them drawn to some fancy jewelry and other shiny shit they had for sale. It was a little early in the trip to actually grab souvenir, but it didn’t hurt to look.

Taako paused when he caught sight of a small item over where Magnus had been messing with the statues. It wasn’t anywhere near as big as the bear, this one fit in the palm of Taako’s hand. Heading over, Taako picked up the small black bird, flipping the smooth, cold stone over in his hands with a grin.

“Lulu check this out,” he said happily when Lup headed over to see what had gotten his attention. She glanced with curiosity at the small trinket in his hand before raising an eyebrow.

“Cute I guess. Didn’t really think it was your style bro,” she said, and Taako tried not to let anything show on his face at that comment. It wasn’t his style. He’d seen the thing and had immediately thought of Kravitz. Of course he couldn’t explain that, so instead he shrugged, still not putting the bird down.

“Anything I get is immediately my style. Such a thing can’t be confined with a few simple words or genres,” he said, which got a snort out of Lup.

“So, you’re getting it then?” she asked. Taako paused slightly, taking a quick glance at the price before nodding. Considering what he’d dragged Kravitz into, the least he could do was get him some souvenirs and junk.

“Yeah, I think so,” he said, moving to check out some more of the store. By now he had caught sight of the last few members of their crew wondering around, and they had been out for at least ten minutes.

Which meant that Taako should start paying attention to where everyone was and make sure no one was planning on heading back to the RV early. He’d like to give Kravitz as much time as he could not cramped up, but he couldn’t risk someone heading back and finding him rummaging through the mini fridge.

“How are you liking the trip so far sir?” Angus asked, and Taako hadn’t even noticed the kid suddenly at his side. He was like that though, fucking sneaky as hell. Taako couldn’t even complain since he tended to encourage the kid when it was used against other people. That didn’t stop him from actually complaining, but still.

“Eh, it’s alright,” he said, shrugging noncommittally. Angus nodded along, not seeming very deterred by his halfhearted answer.

“I’m having a lot of fun, even if so far we’ve just been sitting around a lot,” he said. Taako wasn’t surprised at all by Angus’s optimism, that was pretty par the course. “Are you getting that as a gift for someone?” he asked next, having noticed the small stone bird Taako was still holding.

“Not for you if that’s what you were wondering shortstack,” Taako responded, because it was always better to say something like that than to try and outright lie to Angus. Kid was scarily good at knowing when people were lying. It was part of the reason why Taako would have definitely not suggested Krav sneaking along if he knew Angus was coming too.

“Oh, well it’s really cute sir,” he said, and Taako huffed a little over dramatically.

“Alright, if I buy you one too will you stop bothering me?” he said, and Angus grinned brightly at all.

“I mean, if you insist sir,” he said. Taako rolled his eyes as Angus went to go search over the little stone animals for one as well. If buying the kid shit got him distracted enough not to question  _ who _ Taako was buying this one for, then he would take it.

After a bit more Taako was pretty sure Davenport was gonna start hounding them to the cash registers soon, so he quickly pulled out his phone to text Kravitz.

**‘Hey, probably gonna be heading back in like five or so. Might be good to finish up whatever you’ve got going on and disappear again,’** he sent. He didn’t get an immediate response from Kravitz, heading up to start buying his bird, as well as a white stone mouse Angus had picked out. After a minute or so he felt his phone buzz and pulled it out.

**‘Okay, I’m hidden again,’** Kravitz said, and Taako let out a small sigh of relief at that. He’d been right, and soon enough Davenport was starting the song and dance of trying to corral them all back into the RV. Taako went with a bit less fuss than he normally would have, ready to get this show on the road. Davenport didn’t seem to notice, preoccupied with having to insist to Magnus that no, they could not get the bear. Maybe on the way back if he really wanted to spend his own money that way, but they did not have the space for it for the whole trip.

Heading inside the RV there was no sign that Kravitz had been walking around, and Taako felt a little proud. They were actually pulling it off so far. He wasn’t going to jinx himself, so many things could still go so very wrong, they were barely into the first day of two and a half goddamn weeks, but still. This was some competency that they could build on.

Once everyone was back into the RV Davenport started them off again, letting them know that there’d be one more pit stop for dinner before they actually got to their first destination for a proper nights sleep. That sounded pretty normal for a first day, and Taako was thankful hearing that they were gonna stop at real places to sleep every now and then.

Taako knew he should probably stay down with his family, but also he kind of felt bad about leaving Kravitz up in the loft alone for so long. Plus, the whole point of bringing Kravitz along like this was to get to spend time with him too. So after a few more minutes of being on the road Taako stood up from where he was sitting on the ladder, stretching his arms up over his head a little dramatically.

“Alright, cha boy has officially stayed up for way too long without a nap, I’m gonna go pass out,” he said. It was a very believable excuse, he did tend to nap on these sorts of trips pretty often.

“Taako it’s barely noon,” Barry said, and Taako didn’t let himself be swayed, already starting to climb up to the loft.

“And I got up at goddamn six in the morning, it’s prime napping time my dude,” he said. No one else seemed intent to argue with him on that, which he appreciated. “I’ll be in the loft, if you need me, don’t,” he added, which got a snort out of Magnus.

As he made his way through the curtains he could see that Kravitz had already moved as far back in the loft as he could, giving Taako plenty of room to actually get in. He looked pleasantly surprised to see Taako actually coming up here, and Taako grinned at him.

He hadn’t thought about the fact that they couldn’t talk much without risking the others overhearing. That was kind of a downer, but they could work around it.

Working around it at this exact moment meant arranging himself in a comfortable position, laying next to Kravitz before pulling him into another quick kiss. Taako only pulled away when he remembered the bag still around his wrist, grabbing it and showing the small bird to Kravitz. It was kind of dark in here even with the small light in the ceiling. Still, he could see Kravitz’s confusion followed by his surprised smile when Taako handed it over. He seemed to understand that talking right now was a bad idea, instead looking the little bird over for a moment before giving Taako a soft kiss.

They’d kissed plenty of times before, but there was something about that one that felt like it took Taako’s breath away. That shouldn’t even be a thing possible outside of cheesy and inaccurate romance novels.

Taako had only meant to stay up there for about an hour or so, and he hadn’t actually intended on taking a nap. It was real fucking comfy curled up with his boyfriend though. After a while Taako did find himself passing out.

He woke up later than he would have liked, which meant his sleep schedule was gonna try and throw his whole shit out of whack later. There was a brief moment where Taako was terrified that someone might have come to see what was taking so long and see that he wasn’t alone up there. Kravitz had not been pulled down and tied to a chair or anything like that though. In fact, it seemed like he had fallen asleep as well, his eyes closed and his breath even with an arm wrapped around Taako's shoulders.

Taako would have liked staying right there for a while longer, but he couldn’t risk his fears coming true. Even still, he managed to untangle himself without actually waking Kravitz up, which he counted as a small blessing.

Heading back down to the main part of the RV, everything seemed pretty chill for the most part. It looked like this was one of the rare times where they managed to convince Davenport to let someone else take the wheel for a change. Barry was currently up at the front driving, while Davenport sat playing a card game at the table with Merle while Angus watched.

“Well, look who’s back to the land of the living,” Lup said. Taako good-naturedly flipped her off, heading over to the mini fridge and grabbing a soda to try and clear some of the grogginess out of his head.

“Alright, I guess I won’t ever try and be early for something again,” he said.

“That would be significantly less weird, yes,” Magnus commented. Taako drained the last of his soda and then tossed the can at his head for good measure.

“We’re gonna be stopping for dinner soon sir,” Angus said, which was the first useful bit of information he’d been offered since coming back down.

Taako hadn’t thought about how to get proper meals up to Kravitz, which was a bit of a problem. He ended up ordering a huge fucking meal for himself and then retreating up to the loft like a gremlin to eat it. Still not the most unusual thing for him, so no one seemed to call him out too bad on it.

Still, Taako didn’t risk it, coming back down almost as soon as he finished eating his potion. He let Kravitz keep the rest up with him to snack on if he got hungry, and Davenport informed them that they were another three or so hours away from their first day end point.

Those three hours seemed to pass by at a snails pace, Taako really looking forward to getting some time without his family in the room. He tried not to show it though, but it was probably leaking through some by the end there.

Still, after what felt like an  _ eternity _ they reached a long motel and Davenport drove into the parking lot. They weren’t going to spend every night in motels, some would be in the RV, and Taako was pretty sure they were gonna camp once or twice. Sometimes it was nice to have a proper bed and shit though.

As they went inside to book the rooms though, Taako quickly realized a problem with the normal set up.

“I need my own room,” he announced, immediately getting a few looks.

“Why? You can just stay with me and Barry,” Lup said, and Taako made only a slightly exaggerated face at that.

“Or I could  _ not _ be forced to listen to you two whisper sweet bullshit to each other under the covers for eight hours, no thanks,” he said. Lup rolled her eyes at his protest, which was fair. This wasn’t usually a problem after all.

“What about rooming with Tres Horny Boys then?” Merle asked, and Taako didn’t  _ need _ to act to make a face at that.

“How many times do I have to tell you never use that name again? Just for that the answer is no,” he said, which got a huff from Merle.

“Fine then, we’re replacing you with Angus,” Magnus said, hefting the kid up onto his shoulders. He already seemed to be falling asleep on his feet and was surprised at Magnus lifting him up in the air.

“Sure, whatever! I just want my own goddamn room,” he said quickly. Davenport sighed, rubbing at his temples and already seeming over this.

“Alright, fine. You can have your own room tonight Taako, but you’re paying for it,” he said, and Taako nodded. A fair enough trade off.

With that settled everyone started getting set up in their individual rooms. Taako sent a text to Kravitz to let him know he’d come get him once the coast was clear. He waited until about thirty minutes after everyone had gone into their rooms before sneaking out of his own, making his way over to the RV in the dark parking lot. It was locked from the outside, but he quickly sent Kravitz a text, knocking on the side for good measure.

A moment later and Kravitz was peaking his head out, a relieved and somewhat ridiculous smile on his face.

“I can’t believe that actually worked,” he said, stepping outside and shutting the door behind him.

“It’s been one day. I can’t really say we’re home free yet,” Taako said, but a goofy smile was starting to spread across his face as well. “But yeah, definitely better than expected,” he added, the ball of anxiety that had been in his chest all day finally starting to unravel.

He started to lean in, very intent on kissing his boyfriend now that they finally had a moment alone. Before he could though he heard a door open and shut, then footsteps walking towards them. Kravitz gave him a panicked look that mirrored the one on Taako’s own face. Before they could think about it Kravitz dropped to the ground and scrambled under the RV. Unsure what to do with himself, Taako attempted to lean casually against the side of the thing.

Kravitz had just gotten out of sight when Barry walked around the side of the RV, looking very surprised to see Taako there.

“Uh, Taako? What are you doing out here?” he asked. Taako lazily pushed himself off of the side of the RV, trying to look like this was all normal.

“Oh you know, enjoying the night. What are  _ you _ doing?” he asked back.

“I forgot my meds in the RV?” Barry answered, sounding more confused than anything. 

“Cool, cool,” Taako said, starting to walk away. He felt bad about leaving Kravitz hiding under the RV, but he’d get him inside as soon as Barry left. “Well, goodnight,” he said, giving Barry a wave before heading back to his room.

“Bye?” he called back. Once he was inside Taako stood crouched by the window, watching until he saw that Barry had gone back inside. Giving it another minute, he sent an urgent text to Kravitz.

**‘Coast is clear! I’m room 0413.’ ** He didn’t get a text back, but after a moment he could see Kravitz making his way across the parking lot to his room. Once he was close enough Taako opened his door, yanking him inside. As soon as Taako shut the door Kravitz was leaning with his back against it, looking both frazzled and incredibly amused.

“I cannot believe I’m doing all of this for you,” he said, and Taako felt the grin on his face widen as he leaned up against Kravitz.

“I mean, you can stop if you don’t think it’s worth it,” he said, and Kravitz had his arms wrapped around Taako’s waist now, a pleased look on his face now as he stared at him.

“No, it’s definitely worth it,” he said, leaning down to capture Taako’s mouth in a kiss that he immediately began to reciprocate.

Hopefully that got the message across. So far it all seemed worth it to Taako too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we're three for three on days of Taakitz's week. Hopefully we'll be able to keep the streak up for at least one more day, even tho i'm getting back to work tomorrow. I want to say i'm very glad y'all are enjoying these boys absolutely zero brain cell shenanigans. i'm having a lot of fun writing them and their ridiculous love. 
> 
> as always, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!


	4. Chapter 4

They overslept.

It wasn't Taako's fault. He meant to set an alarm, bright and early to sneak Kravitz back into the RV and the rest of their group none the wiser. Keep this lucky streak of people not knowing what a complete disaster he was going strong for another day at least.

He meant to, but he kinda just… forgot. He'd been distracted, Kravitz had been very distracting. If anything it was his fault they were in this mess, keeping Taako up quite a bit longer than he had originally intended. The kiss at the door moving to the bed and slowly escalating and  _ distracting.  _ The worst part was Taako couldn’t even claim to regret any of it, not even close.

Because of that though Taako had barely remembered to plug his phone into the charger before passing out, and setting an alarm had completely slipped his mind. So instead of waking up with plenty of time to stash his boy away and go back to pretending to sleep until his family came to drag him out, Taako was woken up by the sound of banging on his door.

"Taako! Taako get up we're gonna head to a buffet for breakfast! They have free cheese!" Merle's voice shocked him into consciousness. He could feel Kravitz jolt awake as well, freezing as Merle spoke. He had an arm draped over Taako’s shoulders and their legs were tangled together with the motel blankets. Pulling back just enough Taako could see the look of panic reflected on his boyfriend's face, probably identical to his own.

"Gimme a minute! Fuck!" Taako shouted back once he pulled out of his shock. Quickly trying to untangle himself from Kravitz, he ended up falling off the bed and on his ass in the process.

"Lup says you have five before she hacks the door," was Merle's response. On the other side of the bed Taako could see Kravitz frantically looking around for some clothes. In any other situation he would be enjoying the view, but at the moment Taako was frantically trying to put on some pants. He threw the first shirt he managed to find on without looking, not having the forethought to even turn a light on as they tried to get their shit together.

"She better fucking not! And that's not how hacking works!" Taako yelled at the door, but this time he didn't get a response so he figured Merle probably wandered off. Kravitz was more or less dressed now from the looks of it, and Taako shook out the blanket to try and find his phone. It worked, a loud clunk alerting him to its presence on the other side of the bed.

"What do we do?" Kravitz asked, still looking around. For what, Taako had no idea, but at least he’d turned the light on at this point.

"How the hell should I know? Davenport is probably already in the RV at least," he said, struggling to find a way to fix this one. Peaking out the window between the curtains, he could see Merle standing over by the RV talking to Magnus. He had no idea how they were going to get passed them.

“Maybe we should- fuck, should we just tell them?" Kravitz asked, and Taako nearly recoiled at the thought.

"Are you crazy? What the hell would I say? Hey guys, here's my boyfriend, we accidentally kidnapped him, also hey by the way I have a boyfriend did I forget to mention that?" he said, the idea somehow sounding even more ridiculous when he said it out loud. Kravitz paused in his search, shrugging helplessly.

"I don't know, it's a  _ start _ . Not a good start, but…" he said, but Taako shook his head forcefully.

"No, no not happening. I can fix this, we can figure this out," he said, trying to get some semblance of control back. When he looked back over at Kravitz he was frowning, a concerned and uncertain look on his face. It was enough to make Taako pause, not what he was expecting. 

"That's… Taako, are you planning on, you know,  _ ever _ telling them about me? About us?" he asked, and the worried, barely concealed hurt tone to his voice made Taako stop in his tracks, his shoulders slumping. He'd been abuzz with panic before, and he still was, but he found himself much more concerned about this now. It wasn’t like he didn’t know this was a shitty as hell situation he was putting Kravitz in, but they hadn’t talked about it much before. Taako had been hoping he’d be able to sort it all out before they  _ needed _ to talk about it.

"I mean, yeah. Of fucking course I'm gonna tell them. That's not- I just want to do it, I don't  _ know," _ he sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I just want to find some way to do it right," he muttered. He'd been trying to think of some way to break this to them since before it even started, if he was being honest, but he was still at a lost. When he chanced looking at Kravitz again his expression had changed from somewhat hurt to a soft smile. 

"Alright, sorry I just… wanted to be sure," Kravitz said, and Taako nodded.

"Yeah sure, no problem," he said, and Taako was pretty sure Kravitz was talking about a lot here. Much more than what was in their words and more than Taako could bring himself to acknowledge at the moment. There was only so much Taako could ignore though.

Kravitz wanted to know if Taako was thinking about a future. Particularly a future with him in it.

And Taako's answer had been 'of fucking course.' He could tackle what that actually meant later.

"Now come on, help me figure something out here," Taako said, pulling them both away from that subject for now. Kravitz nodded, starting to pack up the rest of their stuff while Taako peeked out the window again.

He could see Magnus and Merle still, but they were walking away from the RV now. It didn't look like anyone else was outside at the moment. It might be the best shot they had, if they were gonna take it.

"Okay babe, I think we're gonna have a chance to make a break for it soon," he said, and Kravitz nodded. He was still looking around for something.

"Taako, I can't find the shirt I was wearing yesterday," he said, tossing another pillow aside. Taako gave a quick look around before shrugging.

"I'll come back for it, we gotta go," he said. Kravitz gave up, following Taako to the door. Opening it a sliver, he took a quick look out to make sure it was still clear. Waving Kravitz along behind him, Taako started running up to the RV. Hiding behind it so that no one could see them from the motel, Taako wasn't quite tall enough to look through the window to see if there was anyone inside.

"Should we risk it?" Taako asked, and Kravitz shrugged.

"I don't think we have any other choice," he said, which was fair. There weren't a lot of options here. If they tried and someone was inside though that was the whole fucking ball game, which felt like way too much of a risk. 

Then Taako heard someone moving around inside of the RV, and he cursed under his breath. Yeah no, scratch that they needed a new plan. He frantically started looking around, growing more panicked when he heard Magnus and Merle coming out of their motel room again.

"Fuck it," he said, quickly flipping open the cargo compartment. Kravitz looked at him with disbelief.

"You can't be serious," he said, and Taako responded by pushing him down by his shoulder.

"Just until we get to the buffet. You can sneak back in while we eat," he said. The others were getting closer and the panic must’ve started getting to Kravitz too. He stopped fighting, going along with this positively shitty plan and climbing inside.

"Oh you're gonna have to pay me back for thi-" Kravitz started as he tried to arrange himself, pausing suddenly once he was inside of the cargo haul. He had a funny look on his face as he stared at Taako.

"What?" he asked, already starting to shut the cargo haul in case anyone came around the corner. Kravitz almost looked like he was about to laugh.

"I uh, I found my shirt," he said. Taako stared at him in confusion, and it took a few seconds for him to notice Kravitz was staring at his chest. Glancing down, Taako felt his face start to heat up at the realization that he had thrown on Kravitz's shirt by mistake. It was definitely a little too big for him and not Taako's style in the slightest.

Sputtering, Taako slammed the cargo haul, muffling the already quiet laughter from Kravitz considerably. Which was lucky, because Magnus and Merle rounded the side of the RV at that point with Angus in tow.

"Oh hey, we were sure Lup was gonna have to break into your room to get you out," Magnus said. Taako huffed, crossing his arms and hoping that would maybe hide the shirt some.

"You all have so little faith in me," he said.

"Is that one of Mr. Barry's shirts?" Angus asked without warning, of course getting straight to the one thing Taako was hoping no one would notice. Taako could see Magnus' and Merle's attention immediately go to the shirt, and Taako had to resist the urge to kick the RV. He guessed Kravitz was suffering enough being locked in there, but Taako would switch places right now if it would get him out of this situation.

"Probably, laundry's a disaster over there," he said, hoping that would be enough to appease them and Taako could run inside to change his shirt before anyone else saw.

His luck was not there today, because before he could do anything else Lup and Barry were coming out of the RV. So it was really good that they hadn’t tried to sneak Kravitz back up into the loft, but that was about the only good choice made in the last, oh, twenty-four hours or so.

“Alright slowpokes lets get a move on! I’m starving and want to eat an omelet the size of my head,” Lup said as she bounded down the RV stairs. Barry was chuckling at something as he walked after her, probably earlier giant omelet related goofs if Taako had to guess.

“Mr. Barry is that your shirt?” Angus asked  _ immediately. _ In response Taako flipped the kid’s hat off his head. “Hey! That was very rude sir,” he complained, quickly grabbing it off the ground and swatting the dirt off of it. None of that actually distracted anyone from the question he’d asked though, and Taako could see Barry staring at his shirt in slight confusion before shaking his head.

“No, it’s not one of mine,” he said, and Taako could feel Lup’s gaze on him now. He knew she knew that black collared shirts were not his style, especially not ones that didn’t even fit him.

“Where’d you get that one bro bro?” she asked, and Taako shrugged, moving past her to head into the RV.

“Fuck if I know, it was just in my laundry. Figured it was Barold’s and was too lazy to give it back,” he lied. Lying to Lup never went well, so he was a little surprised when she didn’t question him any further on it. She might just not have gotten a chance though, Davenport coming through and rushing them fully into the RV to head for breakfast. Taako was thankful for that for several reasons, both for the change of topic and so that Kravitz wouldn’t be stuck down in the cargo haul for too long.

He couldn’t change his shirt now though, since everyone had already noticed it it’d be pretty damn obvious that he changed. So he tried to ignore it, sitting down with Lup at the little table for the ride over to the buffet. He didn’t have to guard the loft right now so he might as well have an actual seat.

As soon as they started moving Taako pulled his phone out, trying to keep the screen out of Lup’s sight as he sent Kravitz a message.

**‘How you holding up?’**

**‘Its hot and uncomfortable’** Kravitz replied, which honestly was fair enough. Taako could not imagine the situation was very pleasurable for him. Taako seriously was gonna have to repay him big time after all of this.  **‘What did they think of the shirt?’** another message came in from Kravitz, and Taako gave the slightest huff at that.

**‘I tried to lie and say it was barry’s,’ ** Taako told him, somehow having to resist the urge to pull the shirt tighter around himself. As embarrassing as it was for his family to see him wearing a mysterious shirt that clearly did not belong to him, he didn’t actually dislike wearing Kravitz’s clothes. Sure, the styles kinda clashed, but Taako could make it work if he had a little more forewarning.

**‘Tell me that didn’t actually work,’** Kravitz responded.

**‘It didn’t because barold is shit at playing along,’ ** Taako sent. Looking up from his phone, it didn’t seem like it would be long before they got to the buffet. ** ‘I’ll let you know when we’re inside and you can run to the loft. Shouldn’t be too long,’ ** he added. In response Kravitz sent him a thumbs up emoji followed by a heart.

Taako texted him a quick heart back before turning his phone over, moving to slump against Lup. She snorted, making a token effort to try and push him off of her, not actually accomplishing anything.

“So, you done with your pouting yet? Or are you still determined to be a brat through this whole trip?” she asked, and Taako huffed, leaning into her even more. He was pretty sure it was only resulting in Barry getting squished down on the end, but that wasn’t Taako’s problem.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, I’ve been perfectly pleasant this whole time,” he said. Lup had a cup of coffee sitting on the table she’d been sipping from. Taako reached over, grabbing it and taking a big swing.

“You know, maybe if you got a boyfriend you’d be less cranky all the time,”

He’d been in the middle of chugging the coffee when Lup spoke. Taako immediately started sputtering, slamming the cup down and coughing as the liquid went down the wrong way. Lup patted at his back, the gesture somehow feeling both comforting and condescending at the same time.

“Fuck you,” he managed out between coughs, taking the clump of paper towels Angus had grabbed for him at some point during his fit. Lup for her part looked completely unfazed.

“Hey Ko, I’m just speaking from experience,” she said with a practiced fake ease. Taako flipped her off, taking a few last deep breaths to get himself back under control.

“Well I’m not going to date  _ Barold _ so that advice is useless to me,” he said, thankful his red face was mostly due to the whole momentary coughing fit.

“What about the mysterious stranger you stole that shirt from? You could always date him,” she asked, her tone a very deliberate casual that Taako  _ knew _ meant she was calling him out. Taako couldn’t even pretend he didn’t deserve it. They didn’t keep these kinds of secrets from each other, and no matter how much he tried he was sure it was obvious he was keeping  _ something _ from her, even more so now.

“Maybe I will, if it’d get you off my back,” he said. Luckily they’d finally gotten to the buffet, which brought an end to that conversation. As soon as they were inside Taako sent Kravitz a text letting him know he could get out of the fucking cargo hold. Kravitz sent him one back as soon as he got inside and situated again. He also sent a picture of himself flipping the bird, looking very hot and disheveled from the whole experience. Hot in both ways, as far as Taako was concerned.

**‘Looking good babe,' ** he commented quickly, putting his phone away before anyone else could get a look at the picture. The rest of breakfast went well though, and when they got back into the RV to continue on with the trip Taako managed to sneak some food up to his boy as well, in exchange for locking him in with the cargo for a while.

The rest of the day actually ended up going alright other than a few small hitches. Nothing as drastic as the shitshow that the morning had been. They had almost managed to get into a sort of pattern. The only real issue was that if anyone ever wanted something out of the loft Taako would immediately spring up to get it for them instead. That definitely seemed to raise some eyebrows, but no one had forced their way up to check yet.

They slept in the RV that night, which meant a lot less panicked sneaking around. The loft area was a little cramped for two people to sleep in, but Taako couldn’t exactly complain about the excuse to cuddle.

Somehow day three managed to come and pass without Kravitz being found either. There was one close call, when they were at a pit stop. Merle had come back into the RV for something while Kravitz was stretching his legs. He’d barely managed to hide in the large closet until he left again.

They definitely knew something was up. There was no way they didn’t know Taako was hiding  _ something,  _ but maybe they weren’t going to actually call him out on it. They hadn’t yet after all, and usually his family wasn’t the most patient people in the world. The best case scenario was that Lup had decided this was a ‘Taako will come tell us when he’s ready’ situation and forbid everyone else from asking him about it.

As it was they were nearing the end of day four now, and Taako still couldn't believe they made it this far. They were getting closer and closer to the woven gulch, and sure his family knew he was full of bullshit, but that was honestly pretty standard. If they could just last a few more days they would be at their destination.

And then they would have to do the whole thing over again coming back, but Taako was trying not to think about that at the moment.

The plan was to camp tonight, which wasn't exactly Taako's favorite part of a trip. He liked his indoor pleasures, and sure the RV was right there if they needed anything, but it was the principle of the thing. 

Taako was trying to be optimistic about this one though. Sure, it wouldn't be as nice as the motel, Taako couldn't demand his own tent, but it might still be fun. At the very least the woods were big enough that he could sneak away and Taako could actually talk to his boyfriend in a voice above a paranoid whisper.

He was pretty sure Kravitz was looking forward to the chance to not be as cramped as he'd been the past few days. Taako was a little surprised he hadn't gotten fed up with the whole deal by now. That he hadn't gotten fed up with  _ him. _

He had asked, one or two more times since that first, if Taako was ever planning on telling his family. Somehow it wasn't even in a pushy way, just caution. Taako couldn't even blame the guy for being concerned, considering the lengths he was going through to hide everything right now.

It was about 4 o'clock when they reached the campsite. An earlier stop time than they usually had, but they wanted some light to actually set everything up by. It wasn't hard, Taako got Magnus and Angus to do most of the work he was supposed to do but didn't want to. He spent most of the time complaining via text to Kravitz that he was lucky getting to hide, he didn't have to do anything.

The sun was setting by the time they had everything set up, a campfire going in the designated fire pit. Taako pulled out those little grills Davenport had packed, and they were a bit shittier than he'd noticed when first looking them over, but he could still make them work. He cooked some extra food, making up an excuse to head back into the RV to drop it off to Kravitz.

"So uh, things are probably gonna be pretty chill after dinner if you wanna maybe sneak off for a bit. Go for a walk in the woods and junk," Taako said as he handed over the plate of perfectly cooked cheap ass hamburgers and kosher hotdogs. Kravitz grinned at the suggestion, nodding.

"That sounds lovely, any chance I could tempt you to come along with me?" he asked, and Taako snorted at that.

"Kinda the whole point of me suggesting it Krav," he said before glancing back at a window. "Okay, I need to get back before everyone loses their heads. I'll let you know when shit's safe to leave," he added, and Kravitz nodded, taking a moment to swallow the food he'd just shoved in his mouth.

"Sounds good," he said. With that Taako headed back out, quickly finishing up the last of the food. Eating with them was fun, even if Lup still insisted on taking his lovingly crafted meals and setting them ablaze in the goddamn fire pit.

"It's better smoky," she insisted, taking a large bite of a solid fucking black hotdog. This was an argument neither of them were going to win but that they both refused to give up.

Things did start to relax some after everyone finished eating and arguing over the best way to do s’mores. Taako gave a quick text to Kravitz to meet him in the woods in five, taking a moment before standing up and stretching in as casual a manner as he could.

"Where are you going?" Merle asked, and Taako shrugged, feeling like he was doing a pretty good job on the whole casual thing.

"Dunno, just thought I’d stretch my legs some. Don't wait up," he said before heading off. Luckily from what he could tell no one followed after him. He didn't go too far into the woods, keeping the RV in sight for now. A minute or so later he could see Kravitz sneaking out, smiling brightly as soon as he caught sight of Taako waving him over.

"Okay, it's definitely nice to be out and waking around," Kravitz said as they moved a bit away from the camp site. It was dark, but there was a clearly marked path and Taako had smuggled a flashlight as not to drain his phone battery.

"We can go out and chill some more once we actually get to the gulch. There should be lots of shit we can sneak away to do there," he said, and Kravitz nodded in agreement.

"That sounds good, I can take you out on a proper date once we're there," he said, which took Taako a little by surprise. He'd said it like he somehow felt like he  _ owed _ it to Taako, like he hasn't already done enough.

"I think you mean I can take  _ you _ out babe. Do you have any idea how many fucking boyfriend points you're raking up with this stunt? Shit's ridiculous," he said, and even in the darkness he could make out Kravitz's bright smile.

"Now, just to clarify, are these regular boyfriend points? Or specifically  _ fucking _ boyfriend poin-" he started, but he wasn’t able to finish before Taako cut him off, cackling with laughter as he swatted at him.

"Oh fuck you," he said, still grinning even as he got himself under control. "And I’d say they're pretty multipurpose," he added.

"I'll be sure to keep that in mind then," he added. The path had turned, following along a stream now. Nothing too big from what Taako could tell, a small bubbling black streak in the darkness. It was nice. Walking with Kravitz and joking about stupid shit and being in- being happy like this, it was real fucking nice.

He wished he could just  _ tell _ them.

"Maybe, uh, I was just thinking," Taako started, and Kravitz must've been able to hear the nerves in his voice, stopping their walk and turning towards him. The look he was giving him was curious but patient. "Once we get back, provided everything doesn't go to shit first, we could-" for some reason even though Taako had assured Kravitz that he was going to tell his family, actually trying to make the plans to do so was fucking terrifying.

He didn't get to make that leap though, the words dying in his throat as he heard footsteps heading up the trail behind them.

"Shit!" he snapped, cutting himself off and lowering his voice back down to a whisper. "You gotta hide," he said, and Kravitz was already looking around them in desperation.

"Where? I'm not getting lost in the woods in the middle of no where!" he whispered back.

"I don't know!" Taako said, and he could hear whoever it was getting closer now. Not thinking in his panic Taako reached out and pushed him, just thinking to get him off the path and out of direct line of sight.

He'd forgotten about the stream.

Before Taako could realize what was happening Kravitz had grabbed onto his arm, struggling to keep himself balanced. The attempt failed spectacularly, Taako immediately stumbling with the added weight, the both of them landing with a loud splash in the stream.

"Fuck!" Taako shouted, the water freezing.

"Taako?" Lucretia's voice called from down the path, sounding reasonably worried. From the sound of it she was running to catch up with them. Shit.

Looking over, Kravitz was struggling to push himself up, seeming very discombobulated after the fall. Between the black clothes he had on and his long dark hair, it was real hard to make him out in the dark water.

Well, it would have to do.

“Stay down,” he hissed, and he could just barely make out the glare Kravitz shot him at that.

“Are you  _ serious?”  _ he snapped, and honestly that was fair. It was still early in the summer, the water hadn’t warmed at all yet. Before Taako could try and answer he heard Lucretia coming up on them, so he scrambled out of the river as fast as he could.

“Taako, is that you?” Lucretia asked, trotting up by last bit of path and grabbing onto his arm to help him to his feet. “What happened to you?” she asked, sounding both befuddled and vaguely amused.

“Didn’t see the stream,” he grumbled. It was not hard to sound upset right now. Lucretia nodded, like that made sense.

“Would you like some help getting back to the camp? You look freezing,” she asked, and Taako was about to jump on that when he stopped. As much as he wanted to get inside the RV and take the hottest shower it could manage, he couldn’t exactly leave Kravitz out here.

“Nah, you head back. I’ll catch up in a minute,” he said, and he knew it was suspicious even before Lucretia gave him a look. There was no logical reason why he wasn’t  _ already _ stomping back to camp. He wasn’t sure what to think when her expression changed from surprised to understanding.

“Sure, but I just- you know that you don’t have to hide anything from us, right?” she asked, and Taako knew he should have expected this kind of talk from one of them as some point. He was not exactly thrilled to be having it now though.

“Yeah yeah sure, whatever you say,” he said, and Lucretia gave him another smile before nodding.

“Alright, I’ll see you back at camp then,” she said, and then she actually headed back. Taako was kind of surprised.

“Good news, you don’t have to worry about introducing me to your family anymore. I think I’m just going to lie here and freeze to death. You can tell them about my corpse if you must,” Kravitz said, pulling himself out of the river and flopping down on the path. Taako couldn’t help but snort at the dramatics, crouching down to move some locks out of his face.

“I’ll make sure to keep everyone out of the RV for you to take a hot shower. I’ll even let you shower first,” Taako offered, and Kravitz sighed.

“Fine, I’ll stay alive,” he relented, and Taako snorted.

Fuck. He was actually in love with him, wasn’t he? 

How the hell was he going to tell his family _ now? _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's still technically day four of taakitz week so i'm not actually late on this one. The next couple chapters might take two or three days to come out though, depending on how much free time I end up having in the next couple of days. Either way should still be updating at a pretty fast pace, and we're past the halfway point now. this chapter in particular was extremely fun to write 
> 
> as always, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!


	5. Chapter 5

When they made it to camp Taako helped Kravitz sneak back inside of the RV before heading over to the campfire with everyone else. There was some confusion and a lot of amusement at his sopping wet state, but Taako ignored most of it and sat as close to the fire as he could manage. It wasn't as good as a hot shower, but these were the kinds of sacrifices one must make for love.

God, he was in love. The thought alone was absolutely terrifying, and he didn't have the faintest clue what to do about it.

He should probably tell someone. Logic would dictate that someone be Kravitz, the actual person he was in love with, but that thought was somehow even more terrifying. They were still new at all of this. What if he didn't love him back? What if Taako tried to tell him and Kravitz thought it was too much too soon and  _ left? _

Well, then Taako had absolutely no idea what had possessed Kravitz to go along with all of his bullshit plans these past few days, but that was beside the point. His fear was not about to listen to things like reason.

Lup would be the next logical choice to tell, but he couldn't do that either. He hadn't even told her he was dating anyone, how the hell was he supposed to bring up being in  _ love?  _ That was a huge fucking leap to take without her knowing. It never should have been something that happened without her knowing.

He could always fall back on his typical defense and do it as a joke. Be as silly and dramatic about it as possible and all cagey about who it was, because there was no way he could  _ actually _ be serious about this anyway.

Except he was, and that was the part that freaked him out most of all.

Eventually Kravitz texted him to let him know the shower was free and Taako was able to pull away from his thoughts some.

He knew he was being quiet the rest of the night. He was pretty sure the others noticed. It probably didn't help that he wasn't even filling his silence with his phone like he had been basically since he and Kravitz started dating. At least Krav probably thought he was busy with his family and not that he was ignoring or avoiding him. He wasn’t, he just needed some time to think fucking… everything.

He needed some way to figure out how to fix this mess he made. If he'd been upfront and told them Kravitz was chill from the beginning it would have been so much easier, but without a convenient means of time travel he was shit out of luck there.

He slept in a tent with Lup and Barold that night, and he was pretty sure Krav was thankful to have the whole RV to himself for a change.

They woke up bright and early on day number five, Davenport informing them that they were right on schedule. They were all set to get to the Gulch at around one in the afternoon tomorrow. No one was quite sure how Davenport managed to clock their schedule so exact with the chaos that always seemed to fill their lives, but no one was willing to question it either.

Heading out, there were definitely signs that they were nearing their destination. The forests they started out in gradually shifted into grasslands, and then later in the day dried up into the start of the desert. Honestly the scenery was real nice, so Taako sat by the window and took the occasional picture to send to Kravitz. He didn't have any windows up in the loft, and Taako felt kind of bad that he wasn't able to actually see most of the trip.

Plus, it was a good way to avoid having to actually talk to him. Not that he didn’t want to, but fuck. He was still processing this shit, and every time Kravitz made him fight back a laugh he could feel his heart flutter and the revelation he had would come flooding back. Then he was a mess as he remembered that holy  _ fuck _ he was in love with this dork. So pictures were better. Pictures were easier right now.

Since they were getting near the end of the trip Davenport was starting to allow for longer pit stops. They ended up stopping at what kind of looked like the local version of a cracker barrel, with a big gift store in the front of the restaurant. Once they were inside Taako texted Kravitz to come in and order himself something. They couldn't see the front from their seats so it was pretty safe.

Once they finished eating they started exploring the gift shop, and Taako was pretty relived to see that Kravitz must've already gotten his food and headed back out. Maybe he should get the dude something from here too. Fuck knew he owed it to him after pushing him into a damn river.

"Hey bro?" Lup said, cutting into Taako's thoughts as he inspected a mug shaped like a skull. There was a tone to her voice he didn't like, something serious and concerned there, so he held up the mug for her to see.

"What you think? Early birthday present for Barold or what?" he asked, and okay at least that got a smile back onto her face.

"I think we've already got like, half a dozen skull shaped mugs," she said, which was fair enough. Taako hasn't realized Barry was close by until he stuck his head around a corner.

"Could make it a full dozen," he chimed in, and Taako snorted as Lup full out laughed at that.

"I'll be sure to keep that in mind babe," she said, and Taako was really hoping that would have been enough to distract Lup from whatever had been on her mind earlier. When she turned back to him though he could tell that her thoughts were already back there.

"Hey, can we talk for a sec?" she asked, and as much as Taako did not want to have whatever conversation she was set on, he couldn't actually bring himself to say no to Lup. Especially since a part of him really did want to tell her what was up.

"Yeah, of course," he said, following her out of the gift shop. There was a bunch of wooden benches and chairs out front for sale, Lup immediately going and sitting down on one. Taako tried not to look as nervous as he felt joining her.

"So, what's up?" he asked, trying his best to sound light and causal.

"Well, you've been acting real fucking weird for starters," she said, and yeah Taako expected that. "And I'm not even talking about how you've been for the past like two months," she added, which was a surprise.

"Then what  _ are _ you talking about? Cause I don't have a clue," he lied. He had a pretty good idea about what had changed, and he knew he wasn’t able to hide that shit well enough for Lup not to notice  _ something.  _ He was honestly only surprised that she hadn’t lumped it all together with what he was keeping from her. It wasn't like the two things weren't actually related after all.

“You’ve been acting weird since you got back last night,” she said, and Taako gave her a skeptical look at that.

“I  _ fell _ in a  _ river,” _ he insisted, but it didn’t look like she was buying it.

“Exactly! And you didn’t even bitch about it!” she argued back, which yeah okay, that was pretty out of the ordinary for him. Lup sighed, not meeting his eyes as she spoke, instead looking out at the desert. “Listen, I know… something has been going on with you lately, and honestly? You’ve seemed  _ really happy _ Ko, so if you wanna keep your secret for now I’m not gonna force you to tell me every little detail. It’s obvious something happened though, so I just… are you doing okay Taako?” Lup asked, and there was a moment where he was left a bit speechless. He couldn’t even be surprised that Lup had seen through him like that, he just didn’t expect her to lay it all out at his feet.

Taking a long moment to genuinely think the question over, Taako nodded.

“Yeah. It’s uh, I think I’m actually doing like, a hell of a lot better than okay,” he said, and immediately Lup perked up at that.

“Really now?” she asked, leaning in now with a shit eating grin and clear interest. “How much better than okay we talking here?” she pressed, and Taako’s eye roll wasn’t as convincing as he would have liked thanks to how much he was smiling.

“Little bit, I’m not going around quantifying this shit,” he said. There was an obvious relief to Lup now, and Taako wondered how much she’d been worrying over this. He should have reassured her sooner, but he’d been trying not to let her know there was anything up at all. Of course, that was probably the worst way he could gone about this with Lup involved. There was no way she wasn’t going to see he was full of bullshit.

She seemed satisfied for now though, and Taako supposed that would be good enough. Just until they got back home. Then he could start to sort out how to actually break this to everyone.

Lup seemed to get that they were nearing the end of the conversation, standing back up and stretching her arms up over her head until her back cracked.

“So, still gonna keep him a secret for now?” she asked, facing away from Taako. That was pretty good, because he felt his face heat up as he started sputtering.

_ “Him? _ Excuse me?” he croaked out, trying to sound more incredulous than flustered. To his bewilderment Lup actually flinched at that, looking almost sheepish for some reason that was beyond him. He’d figure that she was just trying to needle him some more.

“Him, them, it, whatever it is that’s got you so dumb lately,” she said with a shrug, and Taako hesitated slightly before nodding.

“Yeah, I uh, I promise I’ll tell you when we get home,” he said, surprising himself as he made that promise. Lup also looked taken a little off guard by that, but Taako had already decided he wanted to figure out some way to tell them. If he told Lup he would when they got back, he would have no choice anymore, he’d have to instead of continuing to avoid it. There was no way Lup would let him back out of a promise like this after all.

“Alright, sounds good bro,” she said, and yeah, there was no way Taako was gonna be able to get out of telling her once they got home. If they even lasted that long. Sure, things had been going shockingly, wildly good so far, but that did not mean it would keep going that way. He sure was hoping they could manage the rest of the trip, but he wasn’t about to go jinxing them.

With that the two of them headed back into the gift shop section of the store, and they didn’t end up spending too much more time there. Taako didn’t end up buying the skull mug, mainly because he didn’t want to risk being seen buying it again and raise more suspicion. He could get Kravitz something else later, once they were actually at the gulch.

They were in the RV for a couple more hours, and Taako was trying not to seem as out of it as he apparently had been. He wasn’t sure how successful he was, but at least Lup wasn’t bothering him about it anymore. Plus, there was no reason to even  _ be _ weird, this wasn’t a big deal if he didn’t want it to be! He didn’t even have to tell Kravitz if he didn’t want to yet. It could just be his own little Taako secret.

They had lunch in the RV, Davenport not wanting to do another pit stop so soon. Luckily over the past few days they had managed to sneak a bunch of snack food and junk up to the loft for Kravitz to munch on without having to worry about being caught or Taako raising suspicion running food up all the time.

It was about an hour after lunch when Taako felt his phone buzz in his pocket, and it almost surprised him. Him and Kravitz hadn’t messaged much today, and Taako was trying to pretend that wasn’t out of the ordinary. Maybe if he was upset or annoyed with Kravitz it would be a little concerning, but he wasn’t. Almost the exact opposite, in fact.

**‘Hey Taako?’** the text from Kravitz read, which didn’t tell him anything about how the dude was feeling right now.

**‘Sup babe?’** he asked, a part of him almost worried for some reason that was beyond him. Or no, not worried. Nervous. For some fucking reason he was nervous, even though he’d been dating Kravitz for almost three months and absolutely nothing had changed. At least, nothing outwardly had changed, and Kravitz had no way to know about any of the inward stuff.

**‘Not much really, you’ve just been kind of quiet today. I wanted to make sure everything was okay,’** Kravitz’s response came. That wasn’t what Taako was expecting. Even if Lup had managed to tell that something was up with him, he didn’t think anyone else would be able to pick up on it. Especially not Kravitz hidden away where he couldn’t even see him.

**‘Yeah, it’s all good my dude,’ ** he sent, not wanting to worry him. Plus, it wasn’t even a lie. Sure, he was mildly panicking over some shit, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t alright. He’d been mildly panicking over a hell of a lot of junk since they left on this stupid roadtrip of mistakes after all.

**‘Okay, well just let me know if you need anything,’** Kravitz responded, and the worst part was that Taako knew he meant it. If he actually needed something he had no fucking doubt Kravitz would try his damned best to get him it. He kept proving that over and over again with every stupid, annoying request Taako gave him to keep him hidden. His thoughts were quickly turning way too mushy, which was kind of a scary thing with his recent revelations.

**‘Only you babe ;)’ ** he sent quickly to distract himself from all of that. He wasn’t sure if it actually did the trick, but it was good enough.

**‘Pfft, well in that case maybe during the next pit stop we could sneak out for a bit?’** Kravitz replied, and Taako couldn’t say that didn’t sound real fucking good. He told Kravitz as such before putting his phone back down and trying to figure out how lost he’d gotten in the conversations around him.

The next pit stop ended up being for dinner. According to Davenport they were still on schedule, so Taako wasn’t too worried about them having to rush out right away. Even still, he found himself eating a bit quicker than he normally would, since he had made plans to go out and actually see and talk to his boyfriend for five goddamn minutes.

Texting Kravitz to meet him outside, Taako was able to slip away from the table at the restaurant they were eating at without anyone questioning him. He figured they thought he was going somewhere normal, like to the bathroom. The sun was still on the horizon as he headed out, and he could see Kravitz waiting by the RV. As soon as he saw Taako he headed over, and Taako grabbed his arm and pulled him off to the side of the building.

As soon as he stopped walking Kravitz caught his mouth in a quick kiss. When he pulled back he was smiling and seemed to be in a pretty good mood, which somehow immediately managed to put  _ Taako _ into a better mood.

“So, we should be getting there tomorrow, right?” he asked, and Taako nodded, staying casually pressed up against Kravitz, his arms resting around his shoulders.

“Yeah, Davenport doesn’t fuck around when it comes to a schedule,” he said. He guessed that explained the good mood. Once they were there Kravitz might actually get to relax and do some fun shit for a bit, instead of being a constant stowaway. “You still down for that proper date once we get there?” he asked, and Kravitz nodded.

“Of course, although I imagine you’ll have to spend the first day exploring with your family,” he said, and yeah, he was right about that. It would be fun, in the same way the rest of this trip had been fun, but there was still an edge of disappointment there. It wasn’t exactly hard to figure out what the problem was at this point.

He hated that he kept having to choose. He just wanted to shove Kravitz at his family and tell them to deal with it because he was sweet and a dork and probably one of the best things to ever happen to him.

He could wait a little bit longer. He could tell everyone the truth in a somewhat more tactful way.

“So uh, I was talking to Lup earlier. When we were out at lunch,” Taako started, because he should probably let Kravitz in on that whole thing. He doubted he’d be upset, since he’d kinda been pushing on the whole ‘letting Taako’s family know they were dating’ topic, not that he could blame him. Still, it also didn’t feel like a thing he should just spring on the guy.

“Oh?” he asked, simply, and Taako nodded.

“Yeah, she uh, kinda figured something was up,” he started, and even though it was starting to get dark there was still enough light and Taako was close enough to easily see the interest on Kravitz’s face at that. “I told her I’d tell her what was up when we got back home, if uh, if you’re cool with that,” he said. Kravitz immediately nodded, a somewhat hesitant frown forming on his lips despite that.

“Yes, that’s- of course. Are you sure you’re ready to do that though?” he asked, and of course he was worried about how  _ Taako _ was with all of this. God, what the fuck did he do to deserve this guy? Because it sure as fuck wasn’t shoving him in a cargo haul and pushing him into a river.

“I’ll be fucking fine my dude. It’s stupid that I haven’t told them about you yet anyway,” he said, and he could see the relief in Kravitz at that. “Once we get home though. I still  _ definitely _ don’t wanna have to explain that I’ve been fucking smuggling a boyfriend this whole time,” Taako added. Kravitz laughed at that, nodding in agreement.

“Right, no I’d rather not have that particular conversation either,” he said. Taako knew they should start getting back into their proper places soon, but he was real comfortable where he was right now. Kravitz’s arms were wrapped around his waist, holding him loosely in place, and the temperature was already turning from too hot to comfortable as the sun continued to set.

Taako could tell him. Right now, spit out those three words as fast as he could, like ripping off an emotional bandaid. Or he could close the gap between them and kiss Kravitz hard enough that maybe he’d understand what Taako was trying to say without words.

He didn’t get to do either of those things though. Instead Taako caught sight of a shadow in the streetlight coming from around the corner of the building. As quick as he could he pulled himself out of Kravitz’s hold.

It wasn’t enough time to hide Kravitz. Instead the two of them stood stock still, about a foot apart as Angus came around the corner.

“Oh there you are sir! You were taking a while so I thought I’d come to make sure you were okay,” he said, not seeming particularly fazed by the two of them. Taako immediately nodded, moving away from Kravitz who kept standing still like that would render him invisible or something. It was the best plan they had right now.

“Yes! Thank you  _ so much _ for that Angus! As you can see I’m doing just fine so why don’t we head back inside right now at this second,” Taako said, a way too cheerful grin on his face as he tried to shoo Angus back around the corner and distract him enough not to notice the whole other person standing there. He couldn’t say he was shocked when it didn’t work, Angus not moving and trying to angle to see around him instead.

“Who were you talking to back here?” he asked, and Taako’s entire thought process was mostly filled with repeating ‘fuck’ at a loud volume. “Is that the guy who broke Merle’s arm?” Angus continued, a somewhat befuddled frown on his face now. The thoughts went up several more notches of the volume control in his brain.

“Not… intentionally?” Kravitz said, and it took all of Taako’s self control to not slap himself in the face. This was the nightmare scenario.

“Oh, well I guess that’s not as bad then. Accidents happen and Merle is a pretty easy person to push down the stairs by mistake,” Angus said with a shrug. If he wasn’t so panicked Taako would have laughed and agreed with the kid’s assertion, but right now he was trying to figure out what lie could get him out of this.

“I suppose he is?” Kravitz said, clearly struggling to decide if he should be talking or not. Angus didn’t seem very interested in his actual response though, and Taako could see his brain working and trying to make more terrifying connections.

“So what are you doing all the way out here Mr… uh, what did you say your name was again?” Angus asked, still as cheerful and chipper as anything. If Taako didn’t know any better he’d swear the kid was delighting in catching Taako in a complete panic.

“It’s Kravitz,” Kravitz answered, and Angus immediately continued.

“What are you doing all the way out here and far from home Mr. Kravitz? What were you two talking about?” he asked. Taako could see Kravitz glance at him in a panic, looking for some sort of answer to give here that wasn’t ‘I stowed away because of mistakes and not wanting to go without kissing my boyfriend for two and a half weeks.’

“Krav’s happened to be passing through too pumpkin,” Taako cut in, going with the first somewhat believable lie he could think of. Kravitz immediately started nodding, latching onto the cover story.

“Yes! I’m um, just driving through to see my mothers. They live out this way. I was surprised to uh, to see Taako out here, so I thought I’d stop and say hello,” he said. It seemed believable enough, Taako just hoped Angus would believe it. The kid was real fucking good at telling when people were lying, but he was still a kid. It wasn’t  _ impossible _ to lie to him.

“That makes sense,” Angus said, and Taako had to resist letting out a sigh of relief, because that would  _ definitely _ make him suspicious. “I didn’t know you two were friends,” he added, and Taako couldn’t quite keep himself from making a face at that.

“I uh, I don’t know about  _ friends,” _ he said, immediately feeling a little bad about that, despite the fact that it wasn’t a lie per say. Just friends was not the first qualifier Taako would have come up with for their relationship. “We had a class together a little while ago,” he added. Also not a lie. Angus looked skeptical, but after a moment he nodded.

“Alright, well, it was very nice to meet you Mr. Kravitz,” he said, holding out a hand for him to shake. Kravitz quickly reached out and took the hand, looking rather serious about it despite the fact that this was a ten year old.

“It was delightful getting to meet you as well Angus,” he said. Taako would have to tease him later about what a dork he was. It was real cute how he was trying to make a good first impression with Angus, despite the shitty as fuck circumstances. Cute and sweet, considering how panicked he'd been about what his family thought of Kravitz.

Of course, he’d have to do that  _ later _ because right now he needed to extract from the situation as fast as humanly possible.

“Well we should probably get inside. Later Krav have fun with your moms!” Taako said, grabbing Angus by the shoulder and starting to herd him away. Kravitz seemed a little surprised by that but nodded none the less.

“Right, that’s- bye Taako, Angus,” he said, and the kid managed to squirm around in Taako’s grip enough to wave back at Kravitz.

“Goodbye Mr. Kravitz,” he said brightly, giving him a wave before turning and following along with Taako back into the restaurant. Before they got to the table though Taako stopped, turning to Angus with a serious expression on his face.

“Hey pumpkin, think you could do me a favor and  _ not _ mention any of that to the others?” he asked, and he could see as Angus’s interest immediately perk up at that.

“Gee sir, that’s a really suspicious thing to ask,” he said, still grinning brightly. God, the kid was such a brat and way too smart for his own good. Sure, that was exactly why Taako liked him, but that didn’t make it any easier to deal with.

“That doesn’t answer the question,” Taako said. He was not about to give the kid any  _ more _ information until he could know it was going to stay secret.

“I suppose I could keep it to myself for now, but I would like to know why,” he said, and Taako expected that.

“Just figured the others wouldn’t be super thrilled to know I’m uh, friends with Kravitz,” he said. Angus nodded slowly, clearly thinking that over.

“You said you two  _ weren’t _ friends though,” he said, obviously excited to catch him in a lie. Taako wasn’t able to keep himself from letting out a little huff of frustration at that.

“Friend adjacent. Listen, what price do I gotta pay to buy your silence?” he asked, getting straight to the point. He stood tapping his foot impatiently as Angus thought the question over.

“To keep from telling everyone about your very good and close friendship with Mr. Kravitz…” he said, and Taako let out a noise of protest at that. Before he could even get out words though Angus was rebutting him. “You kept calling him ‘Krav’ and he seemed really comfortable with the nickname,” he said, and Taako’s shoulders slumped at that.

“Fair enough,” he grumbled. After another moment of thinking Angus snapped his fingers.

“Fifty dollars,” he said, and Taako immediately started sputtering.

“What the fuck my dude? I meant like, a new book, or a shitty souvenir when we got to the Gulch,” he said, and Angus shrugged casually.

“Well, this seems like something you’re pretty invested in sir. And if I waited for something later and other people found out on their own you might go back on the deal, plus you’re the one who always says that cash is king,” Angus said, listing off the reasons on his fingers. Taako grumbled as he dug out his wallet, pulling out a couple twenties and a ten, shoving the bills at the kid.

“You’re a terror and I regret ever teaching you my ways,” he said as Angus pocketed the money.

“I love you too sir,” Angus replied happily. “Should we get back to the others now?” he asked, and reluctantly Taako nodded.

“Yeah, fine let’s get back before someone else comes looking,” he said. Things had just gotten significantly more complicated, but at least he seemed to have cut it off at the pass. As long as Angus didn’t question them any further and kept his mouth shut, they should be fine for the rest of the trip.

Taako knew he was jinxing himself, but there wasn’t much left he could do to make this worse. Might as well go tempting the fates too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so taakitz week is technically over now but we're still here! definitely gonna try and get the last two chapters out as fast as possible, should have the whole fic up by the end of the months for sure. i recognize i am almost tempting the fates like Taako, but here we are. also i have so much fun writing angus. 
> 
> as always, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!


	6. Chapter 6

Kravitz had managed to sneak back into the RV while Taako had Angus in the gift shop with the others. Taako assured him it was fine, Angus  _ probably _ didn’t expect exactly what was going on, and either way he’d bought his silence on the matter. Kravitz didn’t seem entirely thrilled with that course of action, but it was the simplest one. Plus, had it been on anyone else Taako would have given the brat a high-five on excellent use of bargaining.

Kravitz insisted it was extortion, but those were just little details.

Somehow though, they all got back into the RV without anymore incidents and Angus didn’t seem intent on breaking his word. As soon as they were all settled the RV started off once again. The night passed calmly, and when they woke up it was the last day of travel. They were going to get to the Woven Gulch today, and then maybe they’d actually have a bit of a break.

At the very least, Taako was going to take some time to fucking  _ treat _ his boy to make up for the absolute shit travel experience he’d had so far.

Taako actually found himself excited as they quickly closed the gap, the signs for the gulch increasing in numbers and the scenery transforming even more drastically. It was a large, dry desert at this point, with real cacti and weird spiky trees that Merle called Josh or whatever. Taako started taking more pictures with his phone, sending the good not blurry ones to Kravitz as he did.

“It should be coming up now. There’s a town called Refuge close by that we’re staying at, it just overlooks the gulch,” Davenport said from the driver’s seat. Taako nodded, and he wasn’t sure if they’d been going up or if it bored that far into the ground, but they turned and the gulch had come into view, miles of ravines spider-webbing across the horizon. He guessed it was pretty cool looking, and at least he wasn’t the only one taking pictures now. Or well, him and Lucretia weren’t the only ones taking pictures. She always documented just about every inch of any trip they ended up taking. It was both annoying and something they were all really grateful for.

From that point on it didn’t take very long for them to pull into the town. There was obviously a lot of stuff set up for tourists, and it was all in this charming little run down old westerny style, really matching the whole desert aesthetic. Taako could dig it.

“So uh, what exactly are we doing here that’s gonna take a few days. It’s a huge hole in the ground, weren’t not gonna like, go hiking or something are we?” Taako asked, since he hadn’t really got a full rundown of their itinerary or anything. Not that they typically had anything too strict, they tended to play a lot of their stuff by ear, made shit a bit more exciting and fun.

“Oh, I wanna go on a hike!” Magnus said, clearly into the prospect. Taako immediately groaned, regretting bringing up that word. It was like accidentally saying ‘walk’ in front of an energetic dog.

“I have heard they have some beautiful paths that go a bit down into the gulch. I think that would be a wonderful thing to do,” Lucretia joined in, and Taako’s frown deepened.

“You betray me Luce,” he grumbled, only getting a shrug from her in response.

“We’re going to have plenty of time to do all sorts of things. Taako don’t complain about getting a little bit of exercise,” Davenport cut in. Instead of continuing the argument Taako let out a wordless groan of annoyance. He figured they all knew him well enough to understand the complex thoughts and emotions he was trying to convey with that. In response Davenport assured Taako that they wouldn’t have to do any hiking until tomorrow, they could take the time today to actually rest some after the long trip. That was very good to hear, and Taako was already planning to schedule one of his and Kravitz’s outings during whenever they wanted to go on their little hike.

Lunch was first thing on the menu, it being just around one when they got there like Davenport had predicted.

‘Hey, you wanna head out and explore some? It’s a pretty small town and since we’re gonna be here for a while we should be able to meet up pretty easy whenever we wanna’ Taako sent to Kravitz. It would be nice if he could get out and actually do some fun stuff on his own. Both so that he could see the sights and so that Taako didn’t have to keep feeling guilty about locking his boyfriend in the loft.

‘That might be a good idea,’ Kravitz replied pretty quickly. ‘I’ll have a look around, see if there’s any interesting spots we can check out together later,’ he added.

‘Sounds good babe, grab yourself something to eat while you’re out too,’ Taako replied. In response Kravitz sent him a thumbs up emoji. With that Taako tried to focus on actually hanging out with his family for the afternoon. It wasn’t too hard, they were pretty good at keeping his attention when everyone was out and moving around. Honestly, they were usually pretty good at keeping his attention no matter what, these had all been pretty recent developments to the contrary.

Still, Taako found himself actually having some fun as they ate lunch at one of the local bars. The food was hella decent, Taako made a mental note to bring Kravitz back here later, when it was just the two of them. He was gonna have to keep an eye out for potential date spots and that sort of junk. He wasn’t sure how much time he would actually have between running from his family to Kravitz and back again the whole trip, but he definitely planned to get at least a few good proper dates in. He promised Kravitz after all, and his heart was still stuck on the very inconvenient fact that he was in love with this nerd. He wanted to make sure this trip was actually worthwhile for Krav, and as much as he insisted this was all fine he doubted it was actually super chill.

And once they were home, Taako would tell them. He had to keep reminding himself that this stupid secret wasn’t going to last for much longer. Despite how much he was dreading it he was pretty sure it was more of a relief than anything. Even if they hated Kravitz when they found out Taako didn’t think it would take long to change their minds.

Or at least, he really hoped it wouldn’t. 

They spent most of the time after lunch wandering around the edge of the town in a good view of the gulch. It was nice, and even though Kravitz wasn’t here Taako didn’t send him a bunch of pictures. He figured he could bring him here later on. It was relaxing, there were lots of benches and shit to chill out at, little paths that headed down, probably into hikes that they weren’t quite taking yet, and a bunch of plaques that explained what different plants were and how the gulch got there and stuff.

They ended up heading back towards the main part of town closer to dinner time. It was a little early for dinner, but Magnus had almost dropped Merle down a ravine and everyone figured that was a good sign to pack it in.

‘Hey babe, you free to meet up soon?’ Taako sent Kravitz as they started walking back. It didn’t take very long for a reply to come in.

‘Sure, I'm at a bakery at the corner of Slate and Cameron not far’ he said, and then sent a picture of the front of the place. It looked cute, and Taako sent a thumbs up affirmation. Looking up from his phone, the rest of his family seemed pretty distracted. Talking among themselves or arguing about where to eat dinner or looking through whatever pictures they took during the day. He tried to take that moment to slip away undetected. Unfortunately he’d only gotten about halfway across the street before someone saw.

“Taako? What’s up?” Lup called at him, and he waved the question off. If he was casual about it maybe everyone else would think it wasn’t unusual.

“I’m just gonna explore some. I’ll meet up with the rest of you later,” he said, not stopping the entire time he was talking and quickly turning the first corner he found. Standing behind the corner for a moment, he waited. When it didn’t seem like any of his family was gonna try to follow him, he headed off to meet Kravitz.

It didn’t take long to find the bakery he’d sent, and Taako could see Kravitz waiting outside once he turned onto the street. As soon as he noticed him a large smile spread across Kravitz face, and he started to head over. Taako was very pleased as a large cookie was put into his hands.

“I grabbed you something while I was waiting. Promise there's no peanuts in it,” he explained, and Taako snorted at that last little add on.

“This is exactly why I love you babe,” Taako said, taking a large bite of the still warm cookie.

Then his brain caught up to what his mouth had said and he choked on the cookie, doubling over in a coughing fit. He didn’t know how Kravitz had reacted to that, other than getting a drink shoved into his hand after a moment that he quickly chugged. When he finally managed to get a hold of himself and risk looking at Kravitz, his boyfriend was doing his best impression of someone not super flustered. It wasn’t a very good impression.

“Are- are you good? There wasn’t  _ actually _ peanuts in there, was there?” Kravitz asked, sounding a little panicked and Taako shook his head.

“Yeah, no I’m good, no peanuts here. Just uh, cookie, in throat, and… yeah,” he said, trailing off as his words sort of left him. He didn’t know if Kravitz was going to say anything about the thing he just said. He didn’t know if  _ he _ should say anything about that thing he just said. Would it be worse if he left that hanging in the air or actually tried to address it?

Instead of managing to come to any sort of decision on that, Taako shoved the rest of the cookie in his mouth.

“Thanks babe,” he said, his words muffled a little due to his mouth still being full. It managed to get a laugh out of Kravitz though, and okay, that was real good. That was a break in the tension and maybe they could pretend it never happened and Kravitz wouldn’t think he actually meant it like  _ that. _ He did, but he didn’t need to know that. Not yet, at least.

“So uh, are you hungry enough for dinner yet? I’m not sure when you need to get back to your family,” Kravitz asked, and Taako tried not to look too relieved at the change in topic. Instead he tried to look like he was thinking the question over before shrugging.

“Didn’t tell them I’d be back at a certain time, and I figured we’d be paying for our own room again anyway,’ he said, and Kravitz nodded. “So yeah, I’m cool to hang some before grabbing food, cookie’ll tide me over,” he finished. Taako didn’t know if he loved or hated the way his stomach fluttered with how Kravitz smiled at him. Definitely both.

With that they started to walk around town, and it was nice. There were a bunch of little shops that Taako hadn’t gotten a chance to check out yet, and despite himself he couldn’t help but like all those stupid little kitschy places. They had little fancy stones and jewelry and junk, and Kravitz seemed content to look at all the little things with him. It was pretty adorable how Kravitz actually managed to start getting into this whole thing, showing Taako little statues for sale and things like that.

Taako made a mental note of the things Kravitz seemed really excited about. He figured he could come back on his own or with his family later and grab something for him on the down low.

He was trying not to be too paranoid about possibly stumbling over his family as they headed around town. It wasn’t a huge town, but he figured they were out for dinner or starting back to the RV by this point. They’d had a long day out and even Taako was a little beat, he really wanted to spend some time with his boyfriend before he had to head in for the night.

Of course, he was planning on hopefully spending the night with him too. They could get their own room for the few days they were here after all. Taako was for sure looking forward to that.

After a while Taako was starting to get hungry, and the two of them started trying to figure out where to eat. They ended up finding a nice place neither of them had tried yet, figuring that it would be best to try something new so that neither of them were eating the same thing twice in one day. Taako did glance inside to make sure that none of his family were in there at the moment. They weren’t, and that was a lot of points in its favor.

It didn’t take long for them to get seated, and it was quiet between the two of them as they looked at the menu. It was kind of nice. Taako wasn’t usually all that good with long silences with most people, but Kravitz was different. Most of the things with him were different, and that wasn’t a bad thing.

“So,” Kravitz said after a minute, and Taako didn’t look up from the menu as he hummed in response. There were some pretty good options at this place, he was pretty intrigued if they were as good as they sounded. “I like your family,” he said after a moment, and that definitely caused Taako to look up.

“Oh?” he asked, not expecting Kravitz to say something like that. It wasn’t that he didn’t think that Kravitz  _ didn’t _ like them, but he didn’t know if it was an actively  _ liking _ thing.

“Yeah, they’re certainly fun to listen to,” he said, some obvious amusement in his voice at that, which Taako couldn’t blame him for. That was a much nicer way than a lot of people would put it, which was a bunch of barely functional disasters somehow combining into a single almost competent person.

“Well, I’m glad we’ve managed to make the whole trip entertaining for you,” Taako said. Normally if he said something like that it would be sarcastic beyond belief. This one wasn’t though. He was genuinely glad that Kravitz had fun listening to them. That he wasn’t turned off by their stupidity and craziness and maybe saw the same things in his family that Taako saw in them. Which was a lot of bullshit and annoyances, but also people he would take a knife stabbing for if it came down to it. Maybe even a couple knives, depending on who it was.

“I just wish… god, I wish I hadn’t gotten off on such the wrong foot with them. I don’t know how I’m going to change their opinion of me, or make them believe I actually mean any of this and aren’t just, you know... putting up with them for you or something,” Kravitz said, sounding pretty serious. Taako could understand why, it was the same fear he had.

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” he said, swirling the straw in his drink some. He wished he could offer up some concrete solution to all of this. He should be able to, he was the one who knew his family best after all. Despite that though it felt like he’d gone and backed them both into a stupid fucking corner with no way out of it but crashing through the wall or some shit.

Before he could say anything else their food came, and it was actually some pretty decent food. They ended up talking about that, and other things they’d seen that day. Taako told Kravitz about some of the dumb bullshit that his family got up to, and Kravitz laughed along genuinely to it all. It was nice, even if they were both ignoring the huge elephant still playing a trumpet in the corner.

Once they finished Taako figured they should head over to the inn the others were staying at. He texted Lup that he was gonna grab his own room, not putting in any reason why. Hopefully after the last time they’d figure this was a thing he was gonna do occasionally from now on and not question it. That would certainly be the easiest thing.

Lup just sent him a thumbs up emoji back, so hopefully that meant they were in the clear.

“So uh, should we go in there to grab the room together? It’d kinda be bad if we’re staying here for a couple of days and they think you’re getting a room for only one person and realize we’re both using it. I’m pretty sure that’s some form of illegal,” Kravitz said as they started to walk over. Taako hummed, thinking that over.

“Yeah, it would be bad if we got caught. Listen, there are a lot of ways I don’t want my family to find out about all of this, but us getting thrown into the back of a cop car together is pretty down near the bottom,” Taako said. He could see Kravitz nodding heavily in agreement, wincing almost at the thought.

“Yes, let’s please try and avoid that at all cost,” he said, and it was good that they were both in agreement on that.

“Probably best that we go in together then, just to keep shit as upfront as possible,” Taako said. They had reached the inn by this point, and Taako did do an emergency check inside beforehand so that they wouldn’t waltz in together in full view of everyone else. It seemed like the coast was clear though, and with a quick wave he went inside, Kravitz following along after him.

The receptionist lady was nice, didn’t seem to question them wanting to get a room together or how Taako was looking over his shoulder every so often like a paranoid definitely-didn’t-just-hide-a-body-in-the-gulch person. Thankfully she was either used to that or didn’t get paid anywhere near enough to deal with this kind of bullshit. Probably both.

“Are you with that other group? There was a girl there who looked just like you,” she said near the end of the transaction, and yup, Taako was kind of hoping that wasn’t gonna happen. He couldn’t even be surprised though, because it  _ always _ happened. Such was the life of being a twin.

“Oh yeah, they got here ahead of us. Just got a little caught up seeing sights with the boy,” he said, and it wasn’t even a lie. It was just a truth he really hoped didn’t get back to his family. The receptionist lady nodded, doing the last bit of whatever check in stuff she needed before handing Taako the key to the room.

“I get that. Well, hope you all enjoy the rest of your visit,” she said. Taako nodded, taking the key as he did and smiling at her personably.

“Oh yeah for sure,” he said, taking Kravitz’s hand and heading back out to where the rest of the inn rooms were. It didn’t take long for them to find which one was theirs, which was a bit of a relief. The longer they were out in the open the higher the chance of someone coming along and seeing them.

Which was nearly what happened when Taako opened the door, another door opening a few down from theirs. Immediately Taako shoved Kravitz inside, closing the door before he could even see who it was. That was probably a good decision, because it turned out to be Lucretia stepping out. Taako hoped she didn’t see him shove someone into a room before slamming the door. He turn to slump against the door in a not very convincing manner, his hand still gripping the door knob like his life depended on it.

From the look she was giving him, he wasn’t quite so lucky.

“How’s it hanging?” he asked, still trying for an attempt at casually blowing this off. It didn’t quite seem like that would work, Lucretia coming up to him with a very skeptical look on her face.

“Good, you were certainly out on your own for a while,” she said, and Taako shrugged. He was trying not to look suspicious, which he was sure only resulted in him looking even more suspicious.

“Oh yeah, you know, just got distracted, grabbed something to eat, all that junk,” he said. Lucretia nodded, trying to look past him at the door. She couldn’t actually see anything, because despite her demeanor she didn’t actually have secret mind reading powers and couldn’t see through walls. It still felt like Taako had to block the area with his body as much as possible.

“Right, of course,” she said, and yeah she was definitely suspicious as fuck right now. “Who’s room is that?” she asked, and it was definitely hard for Taako not to panic now. He was trying though, for all the good it did him.

“Mine. Grabbed it. Since I was running late and figured you’d all have yours settled by now,” he said, and she nodded like that all made perfect sense. Maybe it did, but it didn’t feel like it to Taako at the moment.

“Right, and the person you just shoved into it was?” she asked, and shit. Yep. Okay, she saw that. Didn’t see who from the sounds of it. Definitely not great though.

“That never happened,” he said, trying to sound as convincing as possible. It didn’t matter how convincing he was though, because Lucretia did not seem to be buying it. It was almost fucking impossible to get one over on her, so he wasn’t even sure why he was trying.

“Taako,” she said simply, a disbelieving tone to her voice that somehow said everything.

“Fifty dollars is the going rate for secrets right now,” he blurted out. That certainly got him a look, Lucretia frowning in confusion.

“I’m sorry, what?” she asked, and Taako tried to steal himself, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his wallet.

“Fifty dollars, you don’t speak of this to anyone and we never mention it again, deal?” he said. There was some obvious befuddlement on her face as Taako shoved several bills at her, but she took them none the less.

“Taako, if you happened to find a handsome stranger you would like to have a summer fling with, none of us are going to judge yo-” she started, but Taako quickly put a hand up to stop her.

“Ah ah ah! You took the money, never speak of this again,” he said, and Lucretia gave him a somewhat amused look before nodding.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she said, slipping the cash into her pocket. Taako grinned, and considering this was something he was planning on telling his family in like, a week, two  _ tops, _ it was maybe a slight waste of money. It sure didn’t feel like it at the moment though, which was all that mattered.

“This is why you’re my favorite,” he said.

“I still don’t know what you’re talking about, but I’m going to assume I deserve it,” she said. Taako snorted at that, and without another word Lucretia turned around and headed off to wherever she had intended to go when she first left her room. Taako didn’t bother asking her, instead watching until she was out of sight before ducking into his room as fast as he could.

When he closed the door behind him he turned to look at the place. Kravitz was sitting on the bed, looking a little disheveled from getting shoved into the room. He had a flat look on his face, his hands pressed together and resting against his chin.

“Did you just pay  _ another _ person not to say anything about me?” he asked, trying to keep his voice blunt but some amusement definitely leaking through. Taako shrugged, trying to look casual about the whole thing.

“Maybe. You don’t know,” he said, and he couldn’t exactly blame Kravitz for rolling his eyes at that.

“You’re ridiculous, how did I fall in love with you?” he asked, and it was casual. It was almost intentionally as casual as he could make it, but it still caused Taako to freeze. He could see the nerves there, slightly tinging Kravitz’s easy bemused smile.

Taako had been hoping that he didn’t notice his fumble before, or that he forgot or didn’t think he was serious or something. It clearly wasn’t any of that though, and Taako could tell that Kravitz was trying his best to let him know that in a way that wouldn’t freak him out. Was trying to answer him without sending him running.

He knew exactly what Taako had meant before, and Kravitz loved him back.

A part of Taako was almost  _ excited _ to tell his family now.

“I don’t know babe, I’m just that irresistible,” Taako said, shaking off the shock and grinning widely. He quickly closed the distance between them, going and flopping down dramatically in Kravitz’s lap, having to sprawl some along the bed as he did. The whole display got a laugh out of Kravitz, who was smiling down at him with something like joy and relief.

“You really are,” he said, leaning down and pulling Taako into a kiss. Immediately Taako started to reciprocate it, and it was nice.

This was a good trip.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so, tempting the fates turned out to be a bad idea as it's definitely not october anymore, whoops. Sorry about that. We're getting there though, and I've got the last chapter started, just need to finish it up. Hoping to do that in this last little bit of nanowrimo. I do wanna thank everyone who's been following along since taakitz week when i started actually writing this fic. It's been a lot of fun so far. 
> 
> thanks for reading and i hope you enjoy!


	7. Chapter 7

Taako could actually say he was having fun. He was definitely in a better mood than he’d been for a lot of the drive over here. He was sure his family was suspicious as fuck, but they weren’t directly bothering him about why he kept wandering off on his own so often. It wasn’t like it was entirely unheard of, usually when they went on trips they tended to each have a little bit of time to themselves.

Lup and Barry would go off together all the time. Even before they started dating, they’d end up getting distracted by something and the next thing the rest of the group knew the two had been missing for three hours in some little weird novelty shop. Of course, that was part of the reason why absolutely no one was surprised when they did finally end up getting together. It was plain old obvious by that point.

Taako used to make fun of their cutesy couple shit all the time. It didn’t actually bother him, he was fucking thrilled two of his favorite people in the whole goddamn world were so happy together. It was just his duty as a brother and twin and junk.

He wasn’t looking forward to Lup getting back at him for it all though when she found out about Kravitz.

Hopefully it would be worth it. He was still dreading the actual moment, but if he could just get them to all like each other afterwards it definitely would be enough. Taako was fucking tired of having to split his time between his boyfriend and family. His boyfriend who he was kind of sort of in love with and who loved him back. That was still real wild.

The next few days in the Woven Gulch were fun though. Despite the fact that Taako did end up getting dragged on a hike. Kravitz had given him the ultimate betrayal by not letting him get out of it, instead insisting that he should go and get some fresh air and exercise with his family. It was bullshit, but Taako guessed it wasn’t a terrible time. The place was pretty, and Lup had even been smart enough to make sure to pack shoes for the both of them that were good for walking in.

There were a couple of other cool little things around the place as well. They ended up going on a tour of an old mine that used to cut into the gulch and supply the town way back when. Taako actually ended up going on it twice, but Kravitz had seemed pretty excited about it so he didn’t mind. It was actually kinda cute, because Taako had already been through the whole spiel once with his family he ended up watching Kravitz’s reactions to everything.

He hadn’t realized the dude was a bit of a history nerd, but he probably should have. He had a real old-fashioned air about him, which Taako told him. Kravitz rolled his eyes, but didn’t actually look all that offended.

There were other things that Taako ended up doing with both his family and Kravitz over the almost week they were at the gulch. They were doing so much every day that it all felt like it started to bleed together at some point, but in a good way. In the way where they had a ton of pictures afterwards and whenever they tried to tell a story about something that happened it would lead to five other things and no one could quite remember what order it all happened in. Well, no one besides Lucretia, she tended to have that shit on lock.

Maybe during their next trip they could bring Kravitz along officially. He would really like that, even if he was still dreading the actual confrontation. Taako figured he’d be too tired to actually talk to anyone about it as soon as they got home. He was always fucking wipe after a trip like this for at least a day or two. This one would probably be even more so. Still, Taako made a rule for himself. He was going to tell everyone within the first week of being back. He would not let himself wait any longer than that.

And maybe once everyone knew Taako could start to have these two parts of his life interact. He already knew that Kravitz liked the rest of his family and he wanted them to like him back. Taako just had to find a way to convince the rest of them that Kravitz was a much cooler dude than they were all giving him credit for. That they should give him a chance.

Taako was honestly trying not to think about all of that right now though. He didn’t want to plan about what he was doing after the trip. He was just enjoying it as it happened, and trying not to dread the five day drive back that they had in store for them. It always seemed to take a bit longer going back than it did going to a place. They were tired, they tended to take more stops, and there wasn’t in as big of a rush to get anywhere.

Usually Taako liked the drives back. They were chill, everyone unwinding from everything and trying their best not to get annoyed after being stuck in small confinement for quite a while now.

With the longer drive though, Taako figured it was gonna be kind of hell for Kravitz, stuck up in the loft. The added bonus of staying in town that was definitely improving both their moods was having their own place to stay. No one had tried to come crash in Taako’s inn room, which was honestly kind of surprising. Of course, this was the first time Taako had ever insisted on having his own room for this kind of trip. He figured everyone else just kept forgetting he had a place for them to crash at all.

Still, having a room for Kravitz to stretch out in, and him being able to go out on his own and explore the town whenever he wanted was nice. Taako was pretty sure he wasn’t looking forward to getting stuffed back up in the loft again. They were both trying to enjoy as much of the freedom to move around and be kind of disgustingly sweet to each other where no one could see as they could.

It all seemed to go by much too fast though. Soon enough they were on the last day there and Davenport was telling them all that they’d have to be up bright and early tomorrow to head home. It was disappointing, but it wasn’t like they didn’t all know this was coming.

“So, Dav wants us all up early tomorrow to get a move out before traffic starts or whatever,” Taako said the night before. Him and Kravitz had just come in from a pretty long day, and he was pretty sure the rest of his family was annoyed at him ghosting them for the last day there. Still, he wanted to make sure Kravitz had a good day before being stuck in a fucking cupboard again. 

“Right, what time should we be out of here do you think then?” Kravitz asked, not sounding bothered by the imminent trip back. Taako wasn’t sure if he actually didn’t care or if he was trying real hard to try and make himself seem that way.

“Probably like fucking, 6am or some other ridiculous shit,” Taako said, not sounding excited about that. Honestly, 6am was pushing it with how early Davenport tended to wake up on a regular day. Still, Taako did not want to wake up any earlier than that, and he didn’t want to make Kravitz stay stuck in the stupid loft for any longer than he had to. So, they would just have to be sneaky about it.

“Yeah, that works I guess,” Kravitz said, once again not sounding as annoyed by the fact that they had to wake up early as Taako was. “We need to remember to set an alarm this time,” he added, and Taako snorted a bit that that as he nodded. Right. Did not want a repeat of the last time they had to get on the RV from a room.

It actually ended up going smoothly though, for the most part at least. Taako groaned and tried his damnedest not to get out of bed when the alarm went off the next morning. He even tried burrowing under Kravitz, who laughed at his suffering and threw the blankets off both of them. Taako make sure to tell him he was the cruelest boyfriend in the world, getting a soft kiss on his forehead in return.

Eventually though with enough corralling from Kravitz they managed to get him back up in the loft. It was  _ just _ before anyone else came into the RV, they were for sure cutting it close. It was done though, and Taako told himself they did this once. They could do it again.

The first two days back on the road were chill enough. Taako figured it was because they were all starting to get pretty tired after the trip anyway. They were taking things easy, having little stops here and there to stretch their legs, but mostly moving on at a brisk pace.

It was on day three where things started to go wrong.

Taako supposed it was his own damn fault. It was hard though, after like two weeks of this bullshit to be on edge all the time. They had gotten into a bit of a routine too. Whenever they took pit stops, Kravitz would wait a minute or so and then come out of his hiding spot in the loft. That way he could stretch his legs, get some stuff done, and sometimes him and Taako would sneak off somewhere to hang. This wasn’t one of those times, it was supposed to be a short rest stop, not enough time to go off and get back safely. Kravitz was only planning on hanging around in the bottom of the RV for a bit before sneaking back up.

He wasn’t sure at what point he’d stopped trying to keep track of where all of his family was. Probably day two of the trip back. He was tired, and maybe things had been going well so far so he figured he could let his guard down some. That was a mistake. Taako was looking through the chips for something to bring Kravitz when he felt his phone buzz in his pocket.

**‘Taako.’**

**‘Taako help.’**

Welp, that sure as fuck wasn’t a good sign. He glanced around quickly, and from where he was he could only spot the top of Magnus’s head off a few racks away, and Davenport over by the counter.

**‘What’s happening?’** he sent back, trying to look casual as he grabbed some cheese curls and started up to the counter. It did not take Kravitz long at all to respond, and Taako read the texts as he waited behind Davenport in line.

**‘Your sister came back. I had to hide in the broom closet,’ ** Kravitz said, and it took everything Taako had not to start cursing under his breath. Davenport had brought whatever ill-advised combination of energy drinks and ice coffees he needed for the next section of the drive, and Taako quickly put his chips up as he typed a response back.

**‘Did she see you?’** he asked, and yeah it was probably considered rude to be staring at his phone while paying for something, but this was important.

**‘I don’t think so? I think I would have been pulled back out and tied down to a chair if she saw me,’ ** Kravitz sent back, which was a fair fucking point. That was good at least. Just another close call. Grabbing his bags, Taako started back over to the RV, typing all the while.

**‘Okay, I’m heading back now. Sorry babe, I think you’re gonna have to be stuck there until next pit stop,’** he said. The broom closet wasn’t huge, but it wasn’t the worst place to be stuck in the RV for sure.

**‘At least its not the storage area again,’** Kravitz said, and yeah. It definitely wasn’t as bad as that. The next pit stop wouldn’t be for a little while, so Taako felt a little shitty about that, but there wasn’t anything they could do about it.

Heading into the RV, Lup did look none the wiser. She was sitting at the table, drinking a vitamin water as she lazily flipped through her phone. Taako’s first instinct was to slide in next to her and check out whatever she was doing like the nosy sibling he was. His eye glanced over to the closed closet where he knew Kravitz was hiding out, and he reluctantly went and plopped down right in front of it. He immediately pulled out his own bag of chips and soda, starting to eat like everything was normal.

“So, what’s with that?” Lup asked suddenly, and Taako raised an eyebrow in confusion. She seemed to get the hint, continuing on. “You’ve gotten even more gay lately,” she said, and Taako couldn’t help the snort of laughter that got out of him. It was both unexpected and a little worrying, depending on what she meant.

“I mean, for sure. Kinda curious on what specifically you’re talking about, though” he said, shoving another handful of chips into his mouth.

“You can’t even bother to sit in a chair anymore,” she said, like that explained everything, and it actually did. Taako shrugged casually, hoping that Lup would take his new even stranger seating habits as just a dumb little quirk.

He felt his phone buzz then, and from the looks of it the others were starting to head back now as well.

**‘Wait, where are you sitting Taako?’** Kravitz asked, and it was hard not to laugh at that. Taako could feel a smile tugging at his lips, which he stubbornly fought.

**‘In front of the closet making sure no one walks in on your handsome ass babe, duh.’** He sent, only glancing up momentarily as everyone else starting to pile into the RV again. It wasn’t long before they were on the move once more, and for the first hour or so it went okay. Kravitz would occasionally text him with complaints about being stuck in the closet. A lot of jokes about how he thought he was done with that a lot time ago, most of them coming way too close to making Taako laugh for safety.

Still, it was going fine, until suddenly it wasn’t.

“Excuse me Taako sir,” Angus said, coming up and trying to reach for the closet behind Taako before he could even more. The kid clearly expected him to shuffle out of the way and looked confused when Taako stayed planted right where he was, stubbornly blocking the way. He tried not to look as panicked as he felt, staying with his back pressed up against the door.

“Nope, not moving, too lazy. Whatcha need?” he asked, and Angus was looking at him with a lot of suspicion now. That wasn’t good. Angus already knew something was up, and he’d paid the kid not to say anything but he couldn’t stop Taako from acting totally weird in front of everyone.

“I just wanted to look through some of the board games,” Angus said, which wasn’t an unreasonable request by any means. There was no reason why Taako  _ couldn’t _ move two inches to the left so he could, except for the fact that he had a whole boy stuffed in the closet behind him. Still, Taako was fairly sure it would have been possible to convince Angus to leave without actually telling him why. Kid was quick on the pick up, especially since he’d already paid him for one thing this trip.

It  _ would have been,  _ if Magnus hadn’t immediately jumped in on the board game idea as well.

“Oh hell yeah, I think we have jenga in there,” he said, already standing up and heading over to them as well.

“I’m not sure if jenga counts as a board game, also wouldn’t that be rather difficult to play in a moving vehicle?” Angus asked, although it didn’t seem to deter Magnus from wanting to get at the games in the slightest. Hell, Angus didn’t even seem deterred, just hesitant on the idea of jenga in particular.

“The challenge is what makes it fun!” Magnus insisted. Taako could feel his phone starting to buzz in his pocket, and it was obvious that as he continued to not move he was starting to draw even more attention from the others.

“Nah, come back later. Cha’ boy is feeling too lazy to move,” Taako said, slumping back against the door even more as he tried to casually pull out his phone. He couldn’t say he was shocked to see several messages from Kravitz at this point.

**‘Wait what’s going on Taako? Are they trying to get in here?’**

**‘Oh god they are. What do I do? I can’t go anywhere. This is a closet in a moving vehicle.’**

It was all appropriately panicked messages for the situation, and Taako tried to go to text him back, telling him he had it covered. That would have been a lie, but he wanted to at least seem like he had some sort of control on the situation. He couldn’t though, because before he could finish typing Magnus was reaching down trying to pick him up.

“Alright, up you go lazybones,” Magnus said, trying to heft Taako up on his shoulder. Immediately he started trying to squirm away from his grasp, grabbing onto the bottom of the door so that he couldn’t be moved, while also trying real hard not to accidentally pull it open. Everyone was absolutely staring at them now, so any hopes of blowing his off casually was out the window.

“Don’t you fucking dare! You will not like how this ends! I will kick you in the eye!” he shouted, just able to keep Magnus from actually picking him up.

“Sir, you’re making a bigger deal out of this than it needs to be,” Angus said, sounding more confused than anything.

“Maybe y’all are making a bigger deal out of this than it needs to be,” Taako shot back. Magnus was still trying to pick him up, out of stubbornness than any desire for games at this point if Taako had to guess. He’d been so focused on Magnus and Angus he didn’t notice when Barry had come over, surprisingly quiet for the dude. He didn’t notice at least until he’d grabbed one of Taako’s hands without a word, going to gently pry it off from the bottom of the large cabinet like structure.

Immediately Taako tried to slap his hand away. That was enough for Magnus to get the extra grip he needed to lift him the rest of the way up into the air.

Before he could start to protest even more though they were all sent to the ground, Davenport apparently deciding to take that moment to make a pretty damn sharp turn without any warning. Taako’s fall was cushioned by Magnus somewhat, which was the good news.

The bad news was Kravitz getting tossed straight out into a heap on the floor. There was a few seconds where he struggled to get himself righted, before realizing what had happened and sitting stock still in the middle of the floor. He had the distinct expression of looking like he hoped that if he didn’t move no one would be able to see him.

“Everyone alright back there?” Davenport asked after a second, which made sense. Dude was watching the road and not the shitstorm that had been going on back here. The deafening silence was probably a lot more concerning than all the shouting a few moments ago.

Taako was waiting for the yelling and accusations to start. He was sure they would all soon as everyone processed exactly what was going on.

Instead of shouting, the silence was broken by Lup snorting, followed by her completely breaking down in laughter. Taako could feel his face at this point, burning hot and probably as red as Barry after a week at the beach.

“God damn Taako, really?” Barry asked, sounding more exacerbated and befuddled than mad or offended.

“Um, are you alright Mr. Kravitz sir? How long exactly were you stuck in there?” Angus asked, standing up and looking mildly concerned. Lup was still laughing, and Lucretia had her head in her hands, looking like she was also trying not to laugh.

“Wait, do we know this guy?” Merle asked, and at this point Taako had managed to get his brain to work enough to untangle himself from where he’d fallen with Magnus and stand up in a huff.

“Merle, that’s the guy who broke your arm!” Magnus shouted, an offended sound to his voice, which was the closest to what Taako expected out of all of this so far. He still didn’t sound mad at Kravitz  _ being here _ though, just at the idea that Merle didn’t recognize him. In response, Merle only looked at Magnus with confusion.

“No, that was you, wasn’t it?” he said, getting an enraged grumble out of Magnus. In most situations that would have gotten Taako to laugh, but his brain was a little preoccupied at the moment.

“Okay, is anyone actually going to ask what’s going on or not?” he asked, flustered and annoyed. He expected Lup to be pissed, but she didn’t even look like she could stop laughing long enough to form words. She actually held up a hand, looking like she was asking for a moment as she dissolved into more laughter. Sure, there was definitely something nice at seeing his sister not enraged at him like he expected, but this wasn’t making any sense.

“I’m uh, I’m fine Angus, thank you for asking,” Kravitz said, speaking quietly like he was still afraid of drawing any attention to himself. Which was definitely fair, this whole thing was probably even worse for him than it was for Taako.

“Uh, actually yeah, I would like to know what’s going on,” Magnus said, also pulling himself up from where he’d gotten thrown by the turn. Then he held out a hand to help Kravitz up, which Kravitz very hesitantly took. He kind of looked like he expected it to be a trap, and Taako halfway thought he might be right. It somehow wasn’t one though, Magnus pulling him up easily and letting go afterwards to let Kravitz dust himself off.

Everyone was looking at Taako now, clearly expecting an explanation now that Magnus had asked. Lup’s heavy laughter had finally died down into small fits of giggles, and when she looked at him there was an absolutely  _ delighted _ expression on her face.

Somehow, this was worse than what Taako expected. Just not in the way he thought.

“Uh, this is Kravitz,” he said after a moment, coughing awkwardly as he tried to figure out what the fuck he was trying to say. Or well, he knew what he needed to say, but he had not been anywhere near prepared to get put on the spot like this. He had been planning to tell them  _ after _ they got back.

“Yeah, we know,” Barry supplied helpfully. Kravitz waved awkwardly at this point, looking like he wanted to learn how to disappear. Taako couldn’t blame him for that in the slightest, he was also deeply wishing for that ability right about now.

“I wasn’t finished!” he insisted, because he technically wasn’t. Wording shit was hard. “This is Kravitz, he uh, he was accidentally on the RV when we left,” Taako said, which definitely didn’t sound like the best excuse. It wasn’t, and it caused some raised eyebrows.

“How did he accidentally get on an RV that doesn’t belong to him?” Lucretia asked, and the question felt extremely leading. Like she already knew the answer, and fuck, she probably did. Taako would have been surprised if she  _ hadn’t _ already linked this to the person she’d seen him shoving in his room that he paid her not to say anything about.

“Taako um, invited me,” Kravitz said, sounding nervous to speak up. Which was fair, but Taako still elbowed him in the side in his panic.

“Hey! Who’s telling the story here babe?” Taako chastised, because sure, this was all Taako’s idea, yes. He wasn’t sure if he wanted his family to know about that yet though. 

“Babe?” Lup asked, and fuck. Taako hadn’t even realized it’d slipped. He wasn’t used to adjusting his language when talking to Kravitz, so he hadn’t been thinking. Lup was leaning forward with her chin resting on her hands, an absolute shit eating grin on her face. The fact that she was so delighted was probably a good thing in the long run, even if it made Taako want to die in the moment.

Okay, at this point there was nothing he could do but try and be confident about it. Fuck knew that trying to break the news to his family slowly was out the window.

“Yep. We’re dating. Have been dating. For a couple months now actually, Krav how long’s it been?” he said, and Kravitz looked a little startled at the question.

“Four months next week,” he answered automatically, and Taako hadn’t expected him to know right off the bat like that. That was actually pretty sweet.

“Oh, well that explains a lot,” Barry said bluntly. That was the only real reaction though. Or at least, it was until Lucretia held out a hand. Magnus grumbled and dug through his wallet before slapping an amount of money Taako couldn’t make out into her hand in response. 

“Wait, is that it? Seriously? You had a  _ bet?”  _ Taako asked, getting more flustered as he went on. At this point Kravitz had moved to slump against the wall behind him, his face hidden in his hand as it sounded like he too was trying to muffle laughter at this point.

“Well yeah, it was pretty obvious that you were dating someone Taako, you’re not the most subtle guy in the world. We just weren’t sure who,” Barry said with a shrug, like none of this was a big deal.

“I knew who,” Angus said with confidence. “I just thought you should be able to tell everyone at your own pace,” he added. Taako turned towards the kid at that, his face blank enough that you would have to have pretty good observation skills to see how pissed he was. Luckily, Angus did.

“Then why’d you take fifty dollars from me if you knew and respected my privacy oh so much little man?” he asked, and Angus was sweating now.

“The economy is in shambles?” he tried.

“Give me back my fucking money!” Taako snapped, trying to grab Angus, who went and hid behind Magnus.

“Can’t I already spent it!” he shouted back, causing Taako to groan in frustration. In response Merle came over, patting his shoulder in an attempt at comfort.

“If it makes you feel any better bud, I had no idea,” he said. By now Kravitz had definitely fallen into a fit of laughter, sounding almost hysterical. Taako sure as fuck couldn’t blame him for that. As far as Taako was concerned he was fucking done. Moving away from Merle he went to slump into the booth next to Lup, steadily ignoring her as he let his head fall into the table.

“Fuck all of you, you’re dead to me,” he grumbled, hiding his still beet red face as best as he could. He felt Lup putting an arm around him, and the gesture was somewhere halfway between condescending and genuinely comforting.

“Bro, you know we’re just happy as long as you’re happy,” she said, and Taako grumbled a few affirmative sounds. “Also, this is the most fucking hilarious thing I’ve seen in months. Which is why you’re forgiven for hiding this from me for four fucking months bro seriously what the hell,” Lup added.

“I said that you were making a bigger deal out of this than it needed to be,” Angus jumped in, and Taako shifted enough to glare at the brat over his arm.

“Watch it, you’re still on thin ice kiddo,” he said. Angus smiled at him nervously and a little too sweetly to be genuine.

Sitting up somewhat, Taako pushed Lup so that she moved further down the booth, shifting as well so that there was an extra space. Then he reached out towards Kravitz, who was still standing awkwardly by the wall.

“Get over here babe, gotta introduce you to the family properly I guess,” he said. Kravitz chuckled a little at that, still looking nervous but coming over to sit by him none the less. He held out a hand for Lup to shake, all polite hesitant smiles.

“It’s nice to see you Lup. I um, I’m sorry if I had a bad first impression, I’m really not sure how much better this one is though,” he said. Lup just grinned as she reached across Taako to return the handshake.

“No worries. Anyone who can make Taako put this much  _ effort _ into one thing has to have something good going on with them,” she said. Kravitz chuckled at that, while Taako made a very offended expression.

“Rude! I mean, not wrong in the slightest, but still, rude,” he said, leaning into Kravitz a little more. It was nice, despite the fact that this was the absolute last way Taako had wanted his family to find out. It didn’t seem to be that terrible though, as conversation slowly started up again. They were all drilling Kravitz about certain things, but it was more in the realm of ‘how the fuck have you survived hiding this whole time’ and less ‘what makes you think you’re worthy of dating Taako?’ Which was better. Much better than he expected.

Apparently Angus had been right about him making a bigger deal out of this than he needed to, not that he was going to admit it. Even still, Taako found himself actually looking forward to the rest of the trip back.

Seeing his family break down laughing as Kravitz rapidly gained his confidence, telling them about being shoved in the cargo haul, Taako found himself grinning wildly. He’d been hoping this whole time that someday he would be able to get his family to like his boyfriend. It seemed like he didn’t actually have to try that hard at all.

He shouldn’t have been surprised. It wasn’t hard to love Kravitz at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and we're done! Took a bit longer than anticipated, but I wanted to get one last fic finished before 2019 came to a close. Just under the wire here in that regard, but it still absolutely counts. This fic was a lot of silly fun to do and I'm glad I managed to finish it off. Just a ridiculous little sweet romp to end the year with. 
> 
> As always, thank you all for reading and I hope you've enjoyed!


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